Revision as of 20:07, 8 March 2013

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What xkcd Means

Title text: It means shuffling quickly past nuns on the street with ketchup in your palms, pretending you're hiding stigmata.

Explanation

The first panel shows a driver making a right turn at a red light, a U-turn on the connecting road and then a left turn, returning him to his original direction. Right turns at red lights and U-turns could be illegal at some intersections.

The second panel shows a person in an inset calling his friend's phone to help him find it, only for it to ring from inside a dog's stomach.

In the third panel, Graham's number is a large number (celebrated as the largest number ever used in a proof), and the Ackermann function is a fast-growing function. Actually, A(g₆₄, g₆₄) is less than g₆₅.

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect. If you see a way to improve it, edit it! Thanks.

Transcript

What does XKCD mean?

[One car of two sitting at a red light makes a right turn, then shifts over to the left and makes a left turn to go back the way it came. It then makes another right and continues on the road past the traffic light. This is shown with a red arrow.]

It means saving a few seconds at a long red light via elaborate and questionably legal maneuvers.

[Someone on a cell phone is shown in a circle in the panel. A second person in the panel itself is looking at a dog, from which the ringing sound of his phone is coming]

Ring

It means having someone call your cell phone to figure out where it is.

[The mathematical function "A(g₆₄, g₆₄)=" appears in the panel. Next to the equal sign stands a mathematician, clutching his head.]

It means calling the Ackermann function with Graham's number as the arguments just to horrify mathematicians.

Mathematician: Aughhh

[An approximately 8 by 8 square of floor tiles is shown; the first, fourth and seventh across in the first, fourth and seventh rows are black and the rest are white. A guy and girl are shown next to it, walking on what is presumed to be the same pattern of floor tiles.]

It means instinctively constructing rules for which floor tiles it's okay to step on and then walking funny ever after.

[Line indicating the uppermost right black tile: Black tiles okay]

[Line indicating tile directly below it: White tiles directly between black tiles okay]

[Line indicating a white tile in the last column over: Not okay]

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