Editing 5: Blown apart
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This comic is a mathematical and technical joke involving prime numbers and primary colors. In the comic, a black-colored ''70'' sees a package, but it turns out to be a {{w|letter bomb}} that explodes when opened. The result is pieces of the number scattered about: a red-colored ''7'', a green-colored ''5'', and a blue-colored ''2''. | This comic is a mathematical and technical joke involving prime numbers and primary colors. In the comic, a black-colored ''70'' sees a package, but it turns out to be a {{w|letter bomb}} that explodes when opened. The result is pieces of the number scattered about: a red-colored ''7'', a green-colored ''5'', and a blue-colored ''2''. | ||
| β | The title text explains the logic for splitting 70 into 7, 5, and 2; as with many of the earlier comics, the title text explains the joke rather than adding to it. 7*5*2 is a {{w|prime factorization}} of the number 70. {{w|Prime number|Prime numbers}} are numbers that cannot be divided by any number other than itself and 1. Factors of a number are numbers that can be multiplied together to produce that number (e. | + | The title text explains the logic for splitting 70 into 7, 5, and 2; as with many of the earlier comics, the title text explains the joke rather than adding to it. 7*5*2 is a {{w|prime factorization}} of the number 70. {{w|Prime number|Prime numbers}} are numbers that cannot be divided by any number other than itself and 1. Factors of a number are numbers that can be multiplied together to produce that number (i.e. 2×5×7 = 70). 70 has other factors, including 1, 10, 14, 35, and 70, but 2, 5, and 7 are the only factors that are prime. All other factors of 70 can be formed by choosing zero, two, or three of the prime factors and multiplying them together. |
| β | An implication of this comic is that prime numbers would be immune to explosions, as they are already their smallest parts. Although not explicitly called out, the colors of the numbers also seem to have been blown apart. Red, green, and blue are the primary colors in the {{w|additive color}} model. These colors mixed in pairs produce cyan, magenta, and yellow, which are primary colors in the {{w|subtractive color}} model. The removal of all additive primary colors, or conversely, the combination of all subtractive primary colors, produces black, which is the color of the original 70. The comic is somewhat misleading in that red, green, and blue do not compose black in either color model, but the difference between the two models is not widely understood (most still view the additive primaries as red, yellow, and blue). | + | An implication of this comic is that prime numbers would be immune to explosions, as they are already their smallest parts. Although not explicitly called out, the colors of the numbers also seem to have been blown apart. Red, green, and blue are the primary colors in the {{w|additive color}} model. These colors mixed in pairs produce cyan, magenta, and yellow, which are primary colors in the {{w|subtractive color}} model. The removal of all additive primary colors, or conversely, the combination of all subtractive primary colors, produces black, which is the color of the original 70 (according to the [https://xkcd.com/5/info.0.json official transcript], although it looks dark blue). The comic is somewhat misleading in that red, green, and blue do not compose black in either color model, but the difference between the two models is not widely understood (most still view the additive primaries as red, yellow, and blue). |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
