Editing 660: Sympathy
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision | Your text | ||
Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
| title = Sympathy | | title = Sympathy | ||
| image = sympathy.png | | image = sympathy.png | ||
− | | titletext = Excellent recovery:... which we could try to use to somehow save your original brother! | + | | titletext = Excellent recovery: ... which we could try to use to somehow save your original brother! |
}} | }} | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | This comic | + | This comic targets the lack of social skills physicists are generally believed to have. The example displayed is a case of condolence, in which the appropriate behaviour would of course be to express compassion with the bereaved. |
− | In the | + | In the second panel, the physicist does not display the endorsed demeanour. Instead, he takes a scientific approach towards the statement of his friend. He points out that the transmission of the pain the latter believes to have felt, is in fact limited by the {{w|speed of light}} and could therefore not have been 'instant'. By saying so, he betrays an absence of feeling towards his friend, as well as his inability to understand the figurative sense of the words. |
− | In the last panel, the physicist | + | In the last panel, the physicist reflects on the consequences that would follow if the statement of his friend were indeed literally true. According to {{w|special relativity}}, any object travelling faster than at the speed of light would in fact move backwards in time. The physicist therefore plans to utilise this effect in order to construct a {{w|tachyonic antitelephone}}, a device that allows sending information to the past. To confirm the initial condition, he makes the utterly inappropriate proposal to start a series of measurement with other family members of his friend. |
− | A correction of the misdemeanour is suggested in the title text: The antitelephone might be used to change causality and save the original brother from dying in the first place. Of course, saying the latter would not | + | A correction of the misdemeanour is suggested in the title text: The antitelephone might be used to change causality and save the original brother from dying in the first place. Of course, saying the latter would not improve anything in the given scenario. |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | :Sympathy Tips for Physicists | + | [Title: Sympathy Tips for Physicists] |
− | + | [A bereaved person and his friend are talking.] | |
− | : | + | :Bereaved: The moment my brother died, I felt a searing pain in my heart. |
:Right: | :Right: | ||
− | : | + | :Friend: I'm so sorry. |
− | |||
:Wrong: | :Wrong: | ||
− | : | + | :Friend: Was it instant, or was there a speed-of-light delay? |
:Very Wrong: | :Very Wrong: | ||
− | : | + | :Friend: If it was instant, with the right arrangement of moving reference frames, we could use this to send signals back in time and violate causality! How many remaining siblings do you have? |
− | |||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
[[Category:Physics]] | [[Category:Physics]] | ||
− | |||
− |