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| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | In this comic, we see [[Beret Guy]] walking in from the left, as [[Cueball]] is sitting on a couch, typing on a {{w|laptop}} on his {{w|lap}}, with its {{w|power cord}} unplugged. Instead of connecting it to the {{w|wall socket}}, Beret Guy picks it up and blows air into the loose end of the cord, as if inflating a balloon — and the laptop inflates, along with the "power brick" that is on the cord. It then floats away, making Cueball grab for it as Beret Guy casually walks away. (See an instance where Cueball inflates something in a similar unexpected way in [[1798: Box Plot]]). | + | In this comic, we see [[Beret Guy]] walking in from the left, as [[Cueball]] is sitting in a couch, typing on a laptop on his lap, with its power cord unplugged. Instead of connecting it to the wall socket, he continues to blow air into the loose end of the power plug that he discovers. Then the laptop inflates like a balloon (although this is not possible for a real, functional computer, Beret Guy manages to do it using is supernatural abilities with power cords, also shown in this comic: [http://www.http://xkcd.com/1293/]) and floats away, making Cueball grab for it as Beret Guy casually walk away. |
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| − | It is not possible to inflate a laptop like this{{Citation needed}}, and (with [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugVRY-Cv7Ng&t=401s rare exceptions]) it is not possible to inflate ''anything'' by blowing down a power cord. Beret Guy has previously demonstrated several [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|supernatural abilities]], for instance with power cords, such as in [[1293: Job Interview]].
| + | The comic is a build-up to a couple of tech puns, one being deflation vs {{w|DEFLATE}}, a basic data compression algorithm also used by *zip, the other being {{w|Pipeline (Unix)|“piping”}}, the act of joining an output of one expression with the input of another. |
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| − | In general, human breath should not be buoyant enough to lift much in an atmosphere of ordinary air (see Trivia section below for details). There is a standard cartoon convention that {{tvtropes|AllBalloonsHaveHelium| inflating something with breath}} nonetheless makes it lighter than air. Also, given Beret Guy's many manifestations of inexplicable phenomena, it is not too far fetched to believe his body is, in fact, expelling some form of lighter-than-air gas, similar to the character Rigel on Farscape who could "fart helium".
| + | The final piece of advice refers to [[237: Keyboards are Disgusting]]. |
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| − | The title text involves some jokes on {{w|Unix}} systems. On Unix, {{w|everything is a file}}; even most of the hardware can be referenced by a (virtual) file. These virtual files usually are in /dev or another virtual filesystem like /sys or /proc. While /dev/input really exists and points to the input system (mice, keyboards, gamepads, etc.), /dev/inside doesn't. {{w|gzip}} is a common tool to compress files. The first joke is to compress the air inside the laptop (with the command <code>gzip /dev/inside</code>) in order to deflate the laptop back to normal size. It is a pun with the literal meaning of "deflate", which is also the {{w|DEFLATE}} algorithm used by gzip (compressing files is also called "deflating"). Another joke is "{{w|Pipeline (Unix)|piping}}", the act of using the output of one operation as the input to another. As the output of the gzip command would be compressed air, a ''physical'' pipe could be used to direct the air somewhere useful. The output of a command can also be redirected to a file. Since the hardware is a file, the suggestion is to direct the air to /dev/input (which, in this case, means the keyboard, but would actually be a directory on real system, which can't normally be piped into) to clean it, similar to "compressed air" dusting cans. The complete command would be <code>gzip /dev/inside | /dev/input</code>. As this might cause a spray of unpleasant detritus (compare [[237: Keyboards are Disgusting]]), the reader is advised to avert their eyes.
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| | ==Transcript== | | ==Transcript== |
| − | :[Beret Guy enters to find Cueball on a chair typing on a laptop. Cueball's power cord is unplugged from the wall.]
| + | [Beret Guy enters to find Cueball typing on a laptop. Cueball's power cord is unplugged from the wall.] |
| − | :Cueball typing: Type type
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| − | :[Beret Guy picks up the power cord. Cueball continues typing.] | + | (Laptop SFX): "TYPE TYPE" |
| − | :Cueball typing: Type type
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| − | :[Beret Guy blows into the plug end of the cord. The laptop abruptly inflates and Cueball jerks back.]
| + | [Beret Guy picks up the power cord.] |
| − | :Beret Guy: '''PBBBBT'''
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| − | :Laptop: '''FOOMP'''
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| | | | |
| − | :[Beret Guy walks away, leaving Cueball climbing up his chair to retrieve his inflated laptop which is now floating away.] | + | (Laptop SFX): "TYPE TYPE" |
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| − | ==Trivia==
| + | Beret Guy (blowing into plug end of cord): "PBBBBT" |
| − | The only chemical difference between dry air and dry exhaled breath is the conversion of oxygen (molecular weight = 32) to carbon dioxide (MW=44), not counting substances in such low concentrations that their effect on the average molecular weight of the air (MW=29) is negligible. A change of concentration of the CO<sub>2</sub> from [https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/air-composition-d_212.html 0.04%] to about [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breathing#Composition 4%] is typical. This increases the average molecular weight. However, exhaled breath is also usually much more humid than air, increasing the concentration of water (MW=18) from a typical value of 1% to approximately 5%, which decreases the average molecular weight. The two changes approximately cancel each other.
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| − | {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right;"
| + | (Laptop SFX): "FOOOMP" |
| − | |- style="font-weight:bold; text-align:center;"
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| − | ! style="text-align:right; font-weight:normal;" |
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| − | ! MW
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| − | ! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Dry air
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| − | ! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Fractional<br />MW<br />
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| − | ! Air with<br />1% water
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| − | ! Fractional<br />MW<br />
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| − | ! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Exhaled<br />composition<br />dry
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| − | ! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Fractional<br />MW<br />
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| − | ! Exhaled<br />composition<br />with 5% water
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| − | ! Fractional<br />MW<br />
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| − | |-
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| − | | style="font-weight:bold;" | N<sub>2</sub>
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| − | | style="text-align:left;" | 28.01
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 78.08%
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 21.87
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| − | | 77.30%
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| − | | 21.65
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 78%
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 21.85
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| − | | 74.10%
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| − | | 20.76
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| − | |-
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| − | | style="font-weight:bold;" | O<sub>2</sub>
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| − | | style="text-align:left;" | 32.00
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 20.95%
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 6.70
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| − | | 20.74%
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| − | | 6.64
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 17%
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 5.44
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| − | | 16.15%
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| − | | 5.17
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| − | |-
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| − | | style="font-weight:bold;" | Ar
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| − | | style="text-align:left;" | 39.95
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 0.93%
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 0.37
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| − | | 0.92%
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| − | | 0.37
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 1%
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 0.40
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| − | | 0.95%
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| − | | 0.38
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| − | |-
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| − | | style="font-weight:bold;" | CO<sub>2</sub>
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| − | | style="text-align:left;" | 44.01
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 0.04%
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 0.02
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| − | | 0.04%
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| − | | 0.02
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 4%
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 1.76
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| − | | 3.80%
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| − | | 1.67
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| − | |-
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| − | | style="font-weight:bold;" | H<sub>2</sub>O
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| − | | style="text-align:left;" | 18.01
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" |
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" |
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| − | | 1.00%
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| − | | 0.18
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" |
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" |
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| − | | 5.00%
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| − | | 0.90
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| − | |-
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| − | | style="font-weight:bold;" | Total
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| − | | style="font-weight:bold; text-align:left;" |
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" | 100.00%
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef; font-weight:bold;" | 28.97
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| − | | 100.00%
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| − | | style="font-weight:bold;" | 28.86
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef;" |
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| − | | style="background-color:#efefef; font-weight:bold;" | 29.45
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| − | | 100.00%
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| − | | style="font-weight:bold;" | 28.88
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| − | |}
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| − | Because humans are warm-blooded, human breath is slightly warmer than the surrounding air, and therefore has slightly fewer molecules per unit volume. This is also true of hot air balloons, but they operate at much higher temperatures than human breath and are therefore able to obtain a greater amount of net buoyancy.
| + | [Beret Guy walks away, leaving Cueball to retrieve his laptop, which is floating away.] |
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| | {{comic discussion}} | | {{comic discussion}} |
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| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
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| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
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| − | [[Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy]]
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| − | [[Category:Computers]]
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| − | [[Category:Linux]]
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