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| Modes of Transportation |
 Title text: My bold criticism might anger the hot air balloon people, which would be a real concern if any of them lived along a very narrow line directly upwind of me. |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a Transportationally convenient but insidiously dangerous robotic car - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. |
Randall's chart shows that hot air balloons are an inconvenient and dangerous outlier compared to other modes of transportation. Therefore, if an optimization algorithm considers it the optimal mode of transportation, it must be the result of a sign error (e.g. having a minus sign where a plus sign is supposed to be, or vice versa), giving the opposite result by mistake. Presumably, modes of transportation similar to hot air balloons (like zeppelins and blimps) are left off of the chart to increase the gap for comedic effect. This comic is the second comic in a row to feature an algorithm.
The title text makes a joke that if an angry hot air balloon enthusiast disagrees with the ranking, they will have a difficult time getting to Randall's house with their preferred mode of transportation. In reality, hot air balloons have some freedom to choose their direction of travel, since by controlling their altitude they can access different wind directions at different heights. Randall should, therefore, be concerned about hot air balloonists who live within a wedge spanned by the various wind directions accessible on a given day. In principle, if the weather conditions are favorable, this could cover every direction from Randall's house.
Transcript
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This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks. |
- [A chart is shown, where the Y axis is labeled "Convenient for travel" and has an arrow pointing up and the X axis is labeled "Dangerous" and has an arrow pointing right.]
- [The following modes are shown in the "Zone of practicality" (top left area of the chart), highlighted with a gray background:]
- Trains
- Airliners
- Cars
- Scooters
- Bicycles
- Boats
- Walking
- [The following modes are shown in the "Zone of specialty and recreational vehicles" (from the top right to the bottom left), highlighted with a gray background:]
- Motorcycles
- Helicopters
- Light aircraft
- Go karts
- Skateboards
- Rollerblades
- Skis
- Unicycles
- Sleds
- Bumper cars
- [The following is labeled "?????" (in the bottom right corner), and has a gray background all to itself:]
- Hot air balloons
- [Caption below the panel:]
- Hot air balloons are the optimal mode of transportation, if your optimization algorithm has a sign error.
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