User:NHSavage/Sandbox

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
< User:NHSavage
Revision as of 15:49, 28 October 2012 by NHSavage (talk | contribs) (= Weather radar)
Jump to: navigation, search

Weather radar

A weather radar is a device which uses the reflection of radio waves from rain or snow to detect where there is rainfall. The information from the radar is then shown on a map. In this case green means light rain while red or white represent very heavy rain - possibly a thunderstorm. In this case the speaker (who is located where the black dot is) enjoys storms and is hoping that the radar will indicate one coming his way. A storm indeed appears but splits in half and passes either side of him. The reaction of the speaker seems to suggest that this has happened before.

The text below the image suggests that this happens when the people who run the radar notice you looking at the page enough they tease you by adding a fictional storm coming towards you which then disappears just as it approaches the speaker.

The title text explores how our perceptions are often inaccurate - even though someone might think that there are fewer storm than when they were young or that certain songs come up more often than others even if it is not true. There are lots of these types of biases in judgement.

Title text

Ever notice how there aren't as many thunderstorms now as there were when you were a kid? Much like 'the shuffle on my MP3 player has a bias', this is occasionally true but universally believed. Brains are so interesting!

Transcript

[A black dot on a weather radar screen.]
Dot: Sigh. Just a few clouds.
[The clouds develop into orange, to the left of the dot.]
Dot: Whoa! Huge storm out of nowhere!
[The orange becomes red, and the storm moves towards the dot.]
Dot: It's growing! And headed right for me!
Awesome!
[The storm splits in half.]
Dot: Hey! What's it...
[The two halves of the storm pass by the dot.]
Dot: Dammit!
Again?!