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| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| | + | {{incomplete|Very early explanation. Please elaborate further.}} |
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| − | In this {{w|scatter plot}} [[Randall]] plots the speed of several vehicles (including people on foot for "normal sports") and how disastrous a crash would be. The punchline is that space {{w|rocket}}s travel so dangerously fast, and crashes are so utterly catastrophic, that it pushes literally every other kind of crash to the "slow and safe" corner by comparison. (A similar punchline was used in the title text of [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]].)
| + | Here, Randall makes the truly astounding observation that the danger of a crash is directly proportional to its speed, and serves to highlight the contrast between what we perceive as 'fast' (i.e., racing cars) between what's actually quite fast (i.e., a rocket during takeoff). A rocket may appear to ascend slowly, but it's moving very quite quick. |
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| − | With the plot Randall makes the observation that the danger of a crash is greatly influenced by its speed and highlights the concept of relativity between what we perceive as "fast," normal sports and two different types of racing cars, vs. a much faster vehicle, a rocket during launch. A rocket may appear to ascend slowly (and of course it begins its ascent slowly), but on the way to orbit it ends up moving very fast. But before it reaches the more extreme speed regime it will be far away from the ground (and the casual observer), where there is nothing to compare this speed to as opposed to a race car speeding by a spectator during a race.
| + | The titletext serves to further emphasize the point, as an astronaut (used to the several G's of acceleration during takeoff) would likely find a nascar car moving at ~200mph paltry compared to what they're acclimated to. |
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| − | Apart from the high speed, there is also the altitude to take into account for a rocket launch, and the vast amount of fuel needed to get into orbit, and any sort of catastrophic failure is almost certainly fatal ({{w|Apollo 13}} notwithstanding).
| + | This comic is notable for containing the fewest samples of any plot-point graph featured on xkcd.{{Citation needed}} |
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| − | Racing cars are often involved in crashes, but at that speed it is possible to construct them so even serious crashes may not be fatal. Although rockets are also made as safe as possible, it is a completely different regime of ''speed and danger'', and the risk of something going wrong during a take off is much higher, and it is impossible to prevent a lethal disaster if the launch fails during the ascent. This results in a much higher mortality rate for each crashed rocket (probably 100%) vs. crashed sports/race cars.
| + | ==Transcript== |
| | + | {{incomplete transcript}} |
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| − | Rocket launches are compared to "normal {{w|sports}}" (presumably meaning people running approximately 25 km/h, and possibly also {{w|polo}} {{w|horse}}s galloping approximately 40 km/h), {{w|NASCAR}} (which reaches speed of 320 km/h), and {{w|Formula One}} (F1), where the fastest race cars go 380 km/h. Although peak speed for an F1 car is higher than NASCAR, the average lap speed is much lower as F1 tracks have slow corners while NASCAR ovals can be negotiated with much less speed variation. It is also arguable whether F1 is more dangerous than NASCAR - there have been fewer fatalities in F1 this millennium, though fewer cars compete and races are of shorter duration. The 2016 Formula one season had 21 races, with each race lasting 1.5~3 hours. The NASCAR season had 36 races, with each race lasting 3~5 hours.
| + | A two-axis diagram. |
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| − | A rocket launched to reach the {{w|International Space Station|ISS}} needs to match the speed of the space station which moves at 27,600 km/h. A rocket that needs to {{w|Escape velocity|escape}} from Earth needs to reach 40,270 km/h, but so far no humans have escaped. However, the astronauts going to the Moon came close, with {{w|Apollo 10}} setting the {{w|List_of_spaceflight_records#Fastest|speed record}} for manned flights with 39,896 km/h. (It was only about [https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Apollo-10-the-fastest-of-all-the-Apollo-missions 0.4% faster] than the next 7 missions that, in contrast to Apollo 10, were supposed to land on the Moon). The lowest of the rocket speeds mentioned above is still more than 70 times as fast as the highest speed for race cars.
| + | Toward the top says "Crashes are safe". Toward the bottom says "Crashes are dangerous". |
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| − | The title text serves to emphasize the point further, as an astronaut (used to the several G's of acceleration during takeoff and overall much higher speeds) would likely find a NASCAR car moving at ~300 km/h paltry compared to what they're acclimated to and has supposedly aggravated NASCAR drivers by making a point of saying so. And thus this is used to explain why there are no passenger seats in NASCAR cars, to prevent astronauts from joining the drivers for a nice, slow ride.
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| − | Of the many [[:Category:Charts|charts in xkcd]] this one is notable for containing the fewest sample points of any [[:Category:Scatter plots|scatter plots]] in xkcd.
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| − | ==Transcript==
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| − | :[A two-axis diagram with two double headed arrows centered in the middle of the panel. Each arrow is labeled. There are four large dots in the diagram, three close together in the top left corner and one in the bottom right corner. Each dot is labeled.]
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| − | :[Y axis:]
| + | Toward the left says "Slow". Toward the right says "Fast". |
| − | :Top: Crashes are safe
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| − | :Bottom: Crashes are dangerous
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| − | :[X axis:]
| + | In the upper left corner ("crashes are safe", "slow"), lists "Normal sports", "NASCAR" and "Formula One". |
| − | :Left: Slow
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| − | :Right: Fast
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| − | :[Dots from top left to bottom right:]
| + | In the lower right corner ("crashes are dangerous", "fast"), lists "Rocket launches". |
| − | :Normal sports
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| − | :NASCAR
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| − | :Formula One
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| − | :Rocket launches
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| | {{comic discussion}} | | {{comic discussion}} |
| − | [[Category:Scatter plots]]
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| − | [[Category:Sport]]
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| − | [[Category:Space]]
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