Editing Talk:what if?

[[Special:Contributions/108.233.66.118|108.233.66.118]] 21:11, 16 April 2013 (UTC)so is anybody weirded out by last week's post on the worst thing pressure cookers can do, followed by yesterday's terror attacks using pressure cookers?[[Special:Contributions/108.233.66.118|108.233.66.118]] 21:11, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Do we want to add some references to the different What-If articles?  Obviously putting up an explanation would be a bit of a waste since Randall goes into a lot of detail himself on any given subject.  Some good things to mention might be the title-text on each image, mentions of recurring themes, and maybe some thought about the original subject mentioned (such as the "Space Oddity" music video that was the subject of a recent article). [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 17:11, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

:"What if" is not {{w|Creative Commons}} related, so respect Randall's copyright. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:05, 30 May 2013 (UTC)
::Sorry.  Didn't realize that reviewing a creative work fell into copyright issues. No disrespect intended, only ignorance.  [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 19:16, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

:I agree that "what if?" is not ''clearly'' under CC-BY-NC-2.5, but the link next to the Copyright goes to xkcd itself, which clearly does say it is. [[User:Markhurd|Mark Hurd]] ([[User talk:Markhurd|talk]]) 13:40, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

::Agreed. What-if appears to fall under the general xkcd copyright- it says "Copyright ©2012-13 xkcd." with the link pointing to general xkcd copyright info. "http://xkcd.com/license.html" also says that "you are free to copy and reuse any of my drawings (noncommercially) as long as you tell people where they're from." which includes what-if drawings, and I'm not sure if just part of a work could be copyrighted without Randall explicitly saying so. I also think it would be a good idea to have articles on the what-ifs for more information not stated in the what-if itself. {{unsigned ip|109.144.146.171}}

:IANAL, so I will leave the copyright issues unaddressed as I respond to the original question in the affirmative: yes, we should have a page for each What-if article. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.63|173.245.55.63]] 15:54, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

== Logo/Header ==

I'm convinced there is some sort of specific joke in the "What If" logo, but I'm failing to grasp it.
Knowing Randall, there has to be something funny about using a crane to lower a T-rex into the Sarlacc. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.49.90|173.245.49.90]] 11:53, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

[http://www.nerdist.com/2014/08/exclusive-heres-your-first-look-at-xkcds-what-if/ Nerdist Review] says "Remove the jacket, and you can see how that particular experiment worked out in Munroe’s mind" {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.118}}

== Discussion regarding [http://what-if.xkcd.com/91/ What-if 91] ==

I believe that Randall missed an opportunity to discuss means of harnessing thermal energy.  See, original question specified HOT water!
:He has to pay the electric bill.  He couldn't make back the energy spent to heat the water due to entropy.  [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.161|108.162.237.161]] 05:51, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
Shall we forgive him this oversight and carry out some analysis to determine the harness-able energy content of hot water from the bathtub faucet in an average American apartment building?

:TODO: discuss Sterling engines or other strategies here.  (That means you! :)  )

:I believe that even when you "run out of hot water", the incoming water will still have energy added since the gas or electric water heater will be running non-stop, turning cold water into slightly-less-cold water.  Since slightly-less-cold water is still colder than the ambient temperature in the apartment, I'm not sure how to harness the energy added by the water heater...  But neither am I sure that "you can't".  TODO: Can someone confirm that you can't?

Shall we then turn the dial up a notch, [http://what-if.xkcd.com/35/ What-if 35 style], and imagine how the scenario changes if the apartment building has a water heater that is perfectly capable of keeping the hot faucet piping hot, even if you run it 24/7?

: Suppose the super water heater turns 15C input water (cold) into 50C output water (hot).  I think that means that the water heater adds 35 calories (not kilocalories) of energy per milliliter.  I played with this expression in Google Calculator "(35/1000) calories per ml * 1 liter / 1 second" and determined that 1. Google uses kilocalories for "calories", thus the /1000 part... and 2. it takes ~150 watts to turn a liter of cold water into a liter of hot water in *one second*.

: Let's stop this for now and see if anyone is interested in participating. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.63|173.245.55.63]] 16:28, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

::Go here: [http://fora.xkcd.com/viewforum.php?f=60 What If? discussion]. That's a BIG forum to discuss your items. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:16, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

== Discussion area ==

Is there a discussion area for each of the "what-if?" pages? - Eg I'd like to point out that in #111 "All the money", the mouse-over text in the tombstone graphic says "Cash Ruled Everything Around Me" - or C.R.E.A.M. - coincidence? ;) Also, there have been past pages in which there have been items which I would contest some facts/statements, or seek further explanation. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 13:06, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

I would love to see an analysis of the most recent "what-if" - [http://what-if.xkcd.com/120/ What-if #120] as I'm sure each excerpt from an alternate-universe "What-if" column has an interesting background. Surely even if the article isn't Creative Commons some discussion of it is legal. Yes, I see that there is a thread on the forum for discussing this what-if but it is not succinct. [[User:Momerath|Momerath]] ([[User talk:Momerath|talk]]) 05:56, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

Is there a way this could auto-update like the regular part of the Wiki does? (I assume it auto-updates). This entry will never close if we don't do that and other than listing them and linking to them, there is nothing to say. [[User:4jonah|4jonah]] ([[User talk:4jonah|talk]]) 19:29, 1 May 2015 (UTC)


As Randal stated, He will return posting his "What If?" on Tuesday, July 14th 2015, at 07:49:59 EDT. 
I have attached countdown below, to verify it.
Mori.G.
[http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20150714T074959&p0=43&fg1=ae7181&fg2=8e82fe&msg=What+if%3F+Returns%21&swk=1 What if? Returning!] {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.60}}

== List of articles ==

I don't have time to do much editing right now, so could someone else go and put the list of articles into a table to make more use of the page's width? Perhaps split it into groups of 20-40 entries in a cell, aligned left-right in chronological order and prefix each entry with the article number. Just an idea. [[User:Pixali|<font color="008000">Pixali</font>]] ([[User talk:Pixali|<font color="004b00">talk</font>]]|[[Special:Contributions/Pixali|<font color="004b00">contribs</font>]]) 00:32, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

== Why isn't there an explanation page for each what if? ==

I love the What If? series, and consider it to be a similar, yet separate, version of the normal comics. There are many things that, while reading the What If?, I was confused, interested, or amused by, and I wanted to read about it on this wiki. Randall puts much effort into these, as well as the normal series, so they deserve some explaining. I have no idea how I'd go about this on my own, and I don't have the time right now to spare. I merely want to (hopefully) get the ball rolling on this, if it isn't already. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.145}}
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[Special:Contributions/108.233.66.118|108.233.66.118]] 21:11, 16 April 2013 (UTC)so is anybody weirded out by last week's post on the worst thing pressure cookers can do, followed by yesterday's terror attacks using pressure cookers?[[Special:Contributions/108.233.66.118|108.233.66.118]] 21:11, 16 April 2013 (UTC)
-Do you want me to remove the articles not in the book, or label the ones IN the book? [[User:MadHaighaHatta|Completely sane (And not Anglo-Saxon)]] ([[User talk:MadHaighaHatta|talk]]) 11:34, 5 August 2015 (UTC)
 Do we want to add some references to the different What-If articles?  Obviously putting up an explanation would be a bit of a waste since Randall goes into a lot of detail himself on any given subject.  Some good things to mention might be the title-text on each image, mentions of recurring themes, and maybe some thought about the original subject mentioned (such as the "Space Oddity" music video that was the subject of a recent article). [[Special:Contributions/76.106.251.87|76.106.251.87]] 17:11, 30 May 2013 (UTC)
@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 I love the What If? series, and consider it to be a similar, yet separate, version of the normal comics. There are many things that, while reading the What If?, I was confused, interested, or amused by, and I wanted to read about it on this wiki. Randall puts much effort into these, as well as the normal series, so they deserve some explaining. I have no idea how I'd go about this on my own, and I don't have the time right now to spare. I merely want to (hopefully) get the ball rolling on this, if it isn't already. {{unsigned ip|108.162.221.145}}
-== The UK Version of the book. ==
-I've edited in the UK version's summary, as I own the book. I will write about the date of the UK book's release too and the foreword. Is there anything else about it that other users think should be added?
-== Can we explain this? ==
-Can we explain the questions there, or not? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.77|108.162.218.77]] 23:09, 3 October 2015 (UTC)
-== No more what ifs ==
-Should we include a note that Randall seems to have stopped creating What Ifs?  The last one was over a month ago [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 07:55, 27 October 2015 (UTC)
-He might be working on his book ''Thing Explainer''. Xkcd last posted 2 days ago. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.77|108.162.218.77]] 22:49, 15 November 2015 (UTC)
-I think that we should conclude that this site is over if there isn't another post by New Years. [[User:Bbruzzo|Bbruzzo]] ([[User talk:Bbruzzo|talk]]) 19:23, 5 December 2015 (UTC)
-I think we should just say it's over now. There hasn't been a post in months and ''Thing Explainer'' has been out for quite a while now. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.87|108.162.237.87]] 19:10, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
-Nope! There is a NEW xkcd what-if today, [http://what-if.xkcd.com/141 Sunbeam]! All may rejoice! [[User:AJMansfield|AJMansfield]] ([[User talk:AJMansfield|talk]]) 16:23, 12 January 2016 (UTC)
-Sporadic at best. He seems to have stalled again at 150. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.114|108.162.250.114]] 10:12, 1 July 2016 (UTC)
-Any explanation on the disappearance of the what if #153 "Peptides"? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.88|198.41.242.88]] 12:48, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
-:No clue. It can still be seen on the news app but when I click the link it goes to Hide the Atmosphere.
-They seem on getting more irregular and less frequently, if you can, PLEASE say why, we are all being kept on pins and needles here.[[User:Dontknow|Dontknow]] ([[User talk:Dontknow|talk]]) 05:06, 7 May 2017 (UTC)
-So i guess we are past the previous 16.6 weeks record now? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.92.34|162.158.92.34]] 16:14, 8 July 2017 (UTC)