679: Christmas Plans

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Christmas Plans

Title text: Physicists who want to protect traditional Christmas realize that the only way to keep from changing Christmas is not to observe it.

Explanation

This comic centers around a joke about Quantum Entanglement in physics - if you don't observe something, it has all possible states, not a specific one. It is a double-entendre with the word observe meaning both "look at" (physics sense) and "celebrate" (a holiday)

Transcript

[Character A is standing behind Character B, who is sitting at a computer.]

Character A: Hey, will you be in town the day after Christmas?

Character B: Couldn't say—

Character B: I'm Jewish.

Character A: But... how does being Jewish keep you from knowing your plans?

Character B: I know my plans—

Character B: I just don't know when Christmas is.

Character A: Really? Why not look it up?

Character B: Well, I'm also a physicist.

Character A: So?

Character B: I believe that since I don't observe Christmas, it can't have a definite date.

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Discussion

Interestingly, the comic text could be interpretted as dealing more with classical physics (only by observation do we actually know something) while the hover text is definitely referencing the fact that observing does something to a quantum system. 178.98.207.61 12:57, 17 May 2013 (UTC)