explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1482: NowPlaying

2015-05-24T01:42:47Z

108.162.215.84: Nope. Not working. Try $wgAllowDisplayTitle = true, or consider upgrading MediaWiki to a version 1.11.0 or later.

<noinclude>:''The correct title of this page is '''1482: #NowPlaying'''. It appears incorrectly here because of {{w|mw:Manual:Page title|technical restrictions}}.''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 1482
| date = February 4, 2015
| title = #NowPlaying
| image = nowplaying.png
| titletext = If you click on the post, it takes you to search results for the note on various online music stores.
}}

==Explanation==
There are a variety of applications that post a user's music-listening habits on their preferred social network. In this comic, [[Randall]] takes that notion to its extreme, envisioning a program that does this note-by-note, rather than just song-by-song. As notes are much shorter than songs, this would lead to the flooding of friends' notification streams. In the example, the software is sharing the notes that Brian is listening to; and his friends Mike and Caitlin are getting annoyed with the number of posts they are receiving.

There are typically many hundreds of notes in any song. Any song with more than a single line of music contains multiple different {{w|Note|notes}} whose names according to the English convention are communicated here. All but the slowest songs will require reporting dozens to hundreds of notes every minute (a single {{w|glissando}} may cover a dozen or more notes in less than a second), meaning that anyone who can see your stream of posts will be [[Literally|literally]] inundated by posts from the service. Even if you could keep up with the speed of the posted notes that someone is listening to, the similarity in {{w|Phrase_(music)|phrases}} in many songs (especially pop songs eg: [http://youtu.be/JdxkVQy7QLM Pachelbel's Rant]) means that many different songs may include the same sequence of notes, though possibly in different {{w|Octave|octaves}} or at different speeds.

The comic's title alludes to the fact that you can "play a song" but can also "play a note." It may also allude to the visual similarities between the hash/pound/{{w|number sign}} (#) and the {{w|Sharp (music)|sharp sign}} (♯). ''C sharp'', above Mike's comment, is the only note not given by a single letter (after the correction - see [[#Trivia|Trivia]]).

The title text continues the joke of this new musical service: ''If you click on the post, it takes you to search results for the note on various online music store.'' Since many songs in similar {{w|Key (music)|keys}} contain at least some of the notes posted, you would be given a list of a large part of the music you can buy in any on-line music stores. Of course this is at least as useless as being told which note someone is listening to.

Here are some synthesized versions of the notes in the order they appear in the comic:
*[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1079661/65467.ogg OGG]
*[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1079661/65467.mid MIDI]

They appear to be the beginning of ''{{w|I'll Be There for You (The Rembrandts song)|I'll Be There For You}}'' by {{w|The Rembrandts}}, the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-9kPks0IfE title music] of the TV series "{{w|Friends}}". This could be an internal reference to the idea that it "notifies" (converts into musical notes) your "friends" of the notes (a {{w|Pun|play on words}}). Alternatively it could simply be an instance of effective [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniping]].

==Transcript==
:[A social network news feed with user images for each of the three different contributors. The top of the first post is partly obscured, and for the last post only half of the first line is visible.]

:''[Partially Visible]'' '''Brian''' is now listening to: E
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: B
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: D
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: C sharp
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Mike''' What the hell
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: B
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Caitlin''' Can someone call him?
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: E
:Today • 3:29 PM

:''[Partially Visible]'' '''Brian''' is now listening to: A

:My new social music service notifies your friends about what notes you're listening to.

==Trivia==
*In the [[Media:OriginalNowPlaying.png|original]] comic there were a few errors/mistakes that were corrected later the same day:
**One of the messages was out of order. The instance where "Brian is now listening to A" above Caitlin's post was {{w|timestamp}}ed at 3:29, but the next two posts were timestamped at 3:28. Now this timestamp has been corrected to 3:28 so only the last timestamp reads 3:29, the rest 3:28.
**The first partially visible "note" post was "{{w|E major}}". This is not a single note but rather a chord or {{w|major scale|scale}}. The "major" was removed from the comic so it now reads simply "E".

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Puns]]

1482: NowPlaying

2015-05-24T01:39:48Z

108.162.215.84: Try DISPLAYTITLE

{{DISPLAYTITLE:#NowPlaying}}
<noinclude>:''The correct title of this page is '''1482: #NowPlaying'''. It appears incorrectly here because of {{w|mw:Manual:Page title|technical restrictions}}.''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 1482
| date = February 4, 2015
| title = #NowPlaying
| image = nowplaying.png
| titletext = If you click on the post, it takes you to search results for the note on various online music stores.
}}

==Explanation==
There are a variety of applications that post a user's music-listening habits on their preferred social network. In this comic, [[Randall]] takes that notion to its extreme, envisioning a program that does this note-by-note, rather than just song-by-song. As notes are much shorter than songs, this would lead to the flooding of friends' notification streams. In the example, the software is sharing the notes that Brian is listening to; and his friends Mike and Caitlin are getting annoyed with the number of posts they are receiving.

There are typically many hundreds of notes in any song. Any song with more than a single line of music contains multiple different {{w|Note|notes}} whose names according to the English convention are communicated here. All but the slowest songs will require reporting dozens to hundreds of notes every minute (a single {{w|glissando}} may cover a dozen or more notes in less than a second), meaning that anyone who can see your stream of posts will be [[Literally|literally]] inundated by posts from the service. Even if you could keep up with the speed of the posted notes that someone is listening to, the similarity in {{w|Phrase_(music)|phrases}} in many songs (especially pop songs eg: [http://youtu.be/JdxkVQy7QLM Pachelbel's Rant]) means that many different songs may include the same sequence of notes, though possibly in different {{w|Octave|octaves}} or at different speeds.

The comic's title alludes to the fact that you can "play a song" but can also "play a note." It may also allude to the visual similarities between the hash/pound/{{w|number sign}} (#) and the {{w|Sharp (music)|sharp sign}} (♯). ''C sharp'', above Mike's comment, is the only note not given by a single letter (after the correction - see [[#Trivia|Trivia]]).

The title text continues the joke of this new musical service: ''If you click on the post, it takes you to search results for the note on various online music store.'' Since many songs in similar {{w|Key (music)|keys}} contain at least some of the notes posted, you would be given a list of a large part of the music you can buy in any on-line music stores. Of course this is at least as useless as being told which note someone is listening to.

Here are some synthesized versions of the notes in the order they appear in the comic:
*[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1079661/65467.ogg OGG]
*[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1079661/65467.mid MIDI]

They appear to be the beginning of ''{{w|I'll Be There for You (The Rembrandts song)|I'll Be There For You}}'' by {{w|The Rembrandts}}, the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-9kPks0IfE title music] of the TV series "{{w|Friends}}". This could be an internal reference to the idea that it "notifies" (converts into musical notes) your "friends" of the notes (a {{w|Pun|play on words}}). Alternatively it could simply be an instance of effective [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniping]].

==Transcript==
:[A social network news feed with user images for each of the three different contributors. The top of the first post is partly obscured, and for the last post only half of the first line is visible.]

:''[Partially Visible]'' '''Brian''' is now listening to: E
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: B
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: D
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: C sharp
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Mike''' What the hell
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: B
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Caitlin''' Can someone call him?
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: A
:Today • 3:28 PM

:'''Brian''' is now listening to: E
:Today • 3:29 PM

:''[Partially Visible]'' '''Brian''' is now listening to: A

:My new social music service notifies your friends about what notes you're listening to.

==Trivia==
*In the [[Media:OriginalNowPlaying.png|original]] comic there were a few errors/mistakes that were corrected later the same day:
**One of the messages was out of order. The instance where "Brian is now listening to A" above Caitlin's post was {{w|timestamp}}ed at 3:29, but the next two posts were timestamped at 3:28. Now this timestamp has been corrected to 3:28 so only the last timestamp reads 3:29, the rest 3:28.
**The first partially visible "note" post was "{{w|E major}}". This is not a single note but rather a chord or {{w|major scale|scale}}. The "major" was removed from the comic so it now reads simply "E".

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Social networking]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Puns]]

1231: Habitable Zone

2014-05-24T20:09:36Z

108.162.215.84: /* Explanation */ long discussion of why this really doesn't make much sense

{{comic
| number = 1231
| date = June 28, 2013
| title = Habitable Zone
| image = habitable zone.png
| titletext = They have a telescope pointed RIGHT AT US!
}}

==Explanation==
While searching for {{w|extrasolar planet}}s this gullible astronomer is looking at a reflection of the Earth itself. He's very excited because he found a planet in a star's {{w|habitable zone}}, with oceans and visible weather. It is presumably quite likely to have life on it, which would be the first discovery many astronomers are looking for.

The caption explains that someone has used a mirror to fool the astronomer. The title text goes on and incorrectly says that an astronomer falling for this prank would be able to see the reflection of the telescope being used to make the observation. In reality, the telescopes used for this type of research are designed to view faint, distant objects. In the images that they produce, objects the size of telescopes are not visible. Therefore, the astronomer would not see the reflection of the telescope.

Also, the telescopes have a motor that moves them to compensate for earth's rotation, so that they stay pointed on the same part of the sky. This means that the telescope would not stay pointed at the mirror. The prankster would have to move the mirror in a very precise way to maintain the illusion.

Another problem with Randall's premise is that the comment that the planet is in a star's habitable zone means that the astronomer observed the planet to be the size of earth and observed the distance between the planet (earth) and its star (the sun), and the approximate size of that star. However, in a mirror at any reasonable distance from the earth, up to several times the distance of the moon, the earth would appear to be larger than the sun. For the relative sizes of the earth and sun to be correct in the reflection, the mirror would have to be as far from earth as the mirror was from the sun.

But even pointing to a mirror at a distance of the moon would require a real huge one, probably more than one hundred kilometers (sixty miles) in diameter.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands in front of a huge telescope, looking through the eyepiece.]
:Cueball: I've discovered an Earth-sized planet in a star's habitable zone! It even has oceans! And visible weather!
:To mess with an astronomer, put a mirror in the path of their telescope.

==Trivia==
*Searching for extrasolar planets is still a hard job, so even the results from the {{w|Kepler (spacecraft)|Kepler mission}} are only classified as candidates. The findings still have to be confirmed by other (mostly earth based) telescopes.
*As in July 2013 there are no earth-sized planets confirmed, habitable or not.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Science]]
[[Category:Exoplanets]]

1372: Smartwatches

2014-05-24T19:43:06Z

108.162.215.84: added some practical comments about sawing through a phone

{{comic
| number = 1372
| date = May 23, 2014
| title = Smartwatches
| image = smartwatches.png
| titletext = This is even better than my previous smartphone casemod: an old Western Electric Model 2500 desk phone handset complete with a frayed, torn-off cord dangling from it.
}}

==Important Safety Warning==

Prior to sawing a smartphone, remove the battery. Sawing through a phone that contains a battery can cause an electric shock or an explosion or a fire.

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This is supposed to say why the explanation is incomplete. As currently it only touches the title and not the image itself, it should be obvious.}}

[[wikipedia:Smartwatch|Smartwatches]] are fairly recent innovations which function something like smartphones which are attached to one's wrist, although the screens are often shorter than those of typical smartphones, and they typically need to be attached via bluetooth to a smartphone. This comic shows someone "{{w|Case modding}}" some smartwatches and a broken smartphone; that is, taking the electronic innards of two smartwatches and putting them into the sawn-in-half case of a smartphone before attaching the two halves with a hinge, allowing it to open and close like flip phones, a type that was popular before the rise of smartphones.

The {{w|Model_500_telephone#Model_2500|Western Electric Model 2500}} is the last standard desk-style domestic telephone set issued by the {{w|Bell System}} in North America. It contains the # key and the * key, so it can be said it has same application features as the first cellphones, but it's obviously much bigger, and of course not wireless. Smartphones usually have much more functionality. {{w|Case modding}} is the art of building machines (usually computers) into nicely shaped non-standard cases. The opinion about "niceness" of the result vary, as usual in art. The point is that changing the case doesn't change the functionality, so the niceness (or, usually, "coolness") is only relevant feature (although, badly done modding can affect cooling).

It appears that [[Randall]] has a rather low opinion of smartwatches, as he suggests that it would be better to take out their screens and mount them onto a dead iPhone than to use them the way smartwatches are normally used.

However, Randall's suggestion to cut open the dead phone with a hacksaw is unsound for several reasons:
1. Any attempt to saw through glass will cause it to shatter. To cut glass, one needs to grind it, not saw it.
2. Even if the phone is dead, the battery may be charged. Saw blades conduct electricity, so the person might get shocked.
3. Some batteries contain chemicals that are toxic or explosive. Even if the battery is discharged, sawing through it is very dangerous.
==Transcript==
:A USE FOR SMARTWATCHES:
:[Depicted are two smartwatches, both labelled as "Working" and showing generic colour displays, and one smartphone labelled as "Dead" with a blank screen.]

:[A hacksaw cutting through the smartphone, throughout the middle of the long edge of the case.]

:[The two smartwatches are shown with the wristband and case broken around the edge of the display because the displays with the associated electronics are removed. Arrows are shown coming from the smartwatch cases to the smartwatch displays, then from the displays to the smartphone case halves.]

:[The smartphone halves are installed with the smartwatch components and a hinge with screws beside is shown. Another view shows the hinge screwed into the back of the smartphone case.]

:[The smartphone with the working smartwatch components installed is shown, with the hinge three-quarters open and fully closed - resembling an early flip-phone.]
:World's first flip iPhone

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]

1364: Like I'm Five

2014-05-05T06:16:26Z

108.162.215.84: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1364
| date = May 5, 2014
| title = Like I'm Five
| image = like_im_five.png
| titletext = 'Am I taking care of you? I have a thesis to write!' 'My parents are at their house; you visited last--' 'No, no, explain like you're five.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|}}
ELI5, or Explain Like I'm Five, is a way of asking for a simpler explanation of some difficult topic. In this comic, Megan takes it literally by acting as if Cueball is an actual five year old.

The title text is a continuation of the conversation. When Cueball attempts to respond to Megan's questions, she asks that he, too, speak as though he is five.

==Transcript==
:Cueball: What've you been up to?
:Megan: Doing tons of math for my thesis.
:Cueball: Can you explain it like I'm five?
:Megan: "Oh my god, where are your parents?"

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:1288: Substitutions

2014-04-28T09:11:49Z

108.162.215.84:

We need a web plugin that does this automatically, stat! [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.216|141.101.99.216]] 11:36, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
::Lol, I was just thinking the same thing! I was only meaning to post that in the discussion but saw that nobody had done the explanation yet. There goes a good chunk of my day :/ [[User:Zyxuvius|Zyxuvius]] ([[User talk:Zyxuvius|talk]]) 11:55, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
:::: Came here just to say this. Please post links to the unofficial xkcd news substitution tool as soon as it becomes available :P -- [[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.223|173.245.51.223]] 13:41, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

::::It already exists for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/foxreplace/ This addon allows you to create substitution lists that will automatically be applied to web pages. -- [[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.210|173.245.51.210]] 13:39, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
:::: And here's an URL for the abovementioned FoxReplace addon. Just import it, and it will do the substitutions listed in this XKCD comic: https://www.dropbox.com/s/36eq2xgnmv8obpe/XKCD.json {{unsigned ip|173.245.51.210}}

::I threw this together this morning for Chrome: https://github.com/ChrisMagellan/Make-News-Funny/ Note that you need to enable developer mode in your Extensions settings. {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.29}}
:::: Oh God! Thank you! I'm trying not to laugh too loudly at work. This is hilarious [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/us/politics/book-details-consideration-of-replacing-biden-on-2012-ticket.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|"While last year’s grind of an eating contest lacked the drama of the 2008 race ..."] -- [[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.223|173.245.51.223]] 15:01, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
::::How do I install it? [[User:Whitecat|Whitecat]] ([[User talk:Whitecat|talk]])

::As a userscript that should work with Scriptish, Greasemonkey or anything else that supports userscripts: https://gist.github.com/mcef/7376276 (click to install: https://gist.github.com/mcef/7376276/raw/e0b7a3ca2a65b8809a48241a92f265ae479c9e99/1288.user.js)
::Add other news sites on the top or just tell me and I'll add them. [[User:Mcef|mcef]] ([[User talk:Mcef|talk]]) 19:57, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

::For those who don't want to install anything in their browsers, here is a bookmarklet. To use it, create a new bookmark and insert the following code as location
javascript:(function(){var%20map={witnesses:"These%20dudes%20I%20know","allegedly":"Kinda%20probably","new%20study":"Tumbl%20post",rebuild:"Avenge",space:"Spaaace","google%20glass":"Virtual%20Boy",smartphone:"Pokedex",electric:"Atomic",senator:"Elf-lord",car:"Cat",election:"Eating%20contest","congressional%20leaders":"River%20spirits","homeland%20security":"Homestart%20Runner","could%20not%20be%20reached%20for%20comment":"Is%20guilty%20and%20everyone%20knows%20it"};var%20b=document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];b.innerHTML=b.innerHTML.replace(/new%20study|google%20glass|congressional%20leaders|homeland%20security|could%20not%20be%20reached%20for%20comment|\w+/gi,function($0){return map[$0.toLowerCase()]||$0});})() 
::--[[Special:Contributions/173.245.53.128|173.245.53.128]] 20:44, 8 November 2013 (UTC)
:::: You've made the wrong script. This is the correct one:

<pre>
javascript:
(function(){
var map={
witnesses:"These dudes I know",
allegedly:"Kinda probably",
"new study":"Tumbl post",
rebuild:"Avenge",
space:"Spaaace",
"google glass":"Virtual Boy",
smartphone:"Pokedex",
electric:"Atomic",
senator:"Elf-lord",
car:"Cat",
election:"Eating contest",
"congressional leaders":"River spirits",
"homeland security":"Homestart Runner",
"could not be reached for comment":"Is guilty and everyone knows it"};
var b=document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];
b.innerHTML=b.innerHTML.replace(
/new study
|google glass
|congressional leaders
|homeland security
|could not be reached for comment
|\w+/gi,function($0){
return map[$0.toLowerCase()]||$0});})()
</pre>
[[Special:Contributions/173.245.51.221|173.245.51.221]] 08:45, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
:::: I don't get how that was supposed to work, here's mine: javascript:(function(o){var t = o.innerHTML; var subs = [["witnesses","dudes I know"],["allegedly","kinda probably"],["new study","tumblr post"],["rebuild","avenge"],["space","spaaace"],["google glass","virtual boy"],["smartphone","pok\u00e9dex"],["electric","atomic"],["senator","elf-lord"],["car","cat"],["election","eating contest"],["congressional leaders","river spirits"],["homeland security","homestar runner"],["could not be reached for comment","is guilty and everyone knows it"]]; for(var x = 0; x < subs.length; x++) { t = t.replace(new RegExp(subs[x][0],"gi"),subs[x][1]); } o.innerHTML=t;})(document.body);
[[Special:Contributions/199.27.128.183|199.27.128.183]] 02:15, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

Is "Homestar runner" a reference to something I'm not cool enough to get? [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 20:49, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

::http://www.homestarrunner.com/{{unsigned ip|108.162.219.6}}

I created a plugin for Chrome and Opera, available here: http://www.joshmedeiros.net/XKCD%20Substitutions/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.242.120|108.162.242.120]] 09:16, 9 November 2013 (UTC)

The Virtual Boy is a oversized *portable* console. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.88|173.245.54.88]] 13:34, 10 November 2013 (UTC)

Pigs In Spaaaaace! {{unsigned ip|108.162.219.33}}

That "space" switched for "SPAAAACE" is so much fun when reading about namespaces in C++, for example. I was reading the Go tutorial today... Try it. [[User:GBGamer117|GBGamer117 > /dev/null]] ([[User talk:GBGamer117|talk]]) 23:57, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

The Opera plugin is now available here: https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/xkcd-substitutions/ [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.120|108.162.238.120]] 06:50, 15 November 2013 (UT

I have written yet another Chrome extension inspired by this comic: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/xkcd-substitutions-plus/oppfdcfjocbkhcakmfhenlgimjmoohid "xkcd Substitutions Plus"] I did this since I couldn't find one that let you to edit the list of substitutions. I plan to upload the code to GitHub too. I would love to hear suggestions on how to improve it :) {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.220}}
::You should probably disable your extension for this page (or make it correctly work with the textarea), since you seem to be changing other code posted in the comments with it every time you make an edit. [[User:Mcef|mcef]] ([[User talk:Mcef|talk]]) 15:58, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
:::: It's a good idea, I'll add a list of excluded pages to the extension. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.231.57|108.162.231.57]] 18:59, 17 November 2013 (UTC)
::::::And yet you do it again, ruining all the code posted in the comments. Please refrain from editing this with the plugin enabled. [[User:Mcef|mcef]] ([[User talk:Mcef|talk]]) 19:12, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

The comic description really confused me... until I realised I had the plug-in turned on. :D [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.217|141.101.99.217]] 20:07, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

Weirdest thing I've gotten out of the extension: Jehovah's These dudes I know. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.84|108.162.215.84]] 09:11, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

Talk:800: Beautiful Dream

2014-04-22T09:47:49Z

108.162.215.84: Created page with "I lost the Game. ~~~~"

I lost the Game. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.84|108.162.215.84]] 09:47, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

779: Anxiety

2014-03-13T04:02:08Z

108.162.215.84: It seems more likely it's the man contemplating the purchase or someone else in the line.

{{comic
| number = 779
| date = August 13, 2010
| title = Anxiety
| image = anxiety.png
| titletext = Don't need any, thanks. I have a backscattering fetish.
}}

==Explanation==
Many people are upset about airport security policies that mandate the use of {{w|backscatter X-ray}} machines, since the machines can create an image of the subject naked. [[Black Hat]] is selling {{w|Sildenafil|Viagra}} for men a means to thumb their noses (so to speak) at the system by forcing the security guard to see them with erections. Judging by the security guard's thought bubble, he indeed is not looking forward to the images.

At the title text, Black Hat or possibly one of the people in the line explains he has a fetish with getting X-ray scanned, and so thus doesn't need Viagra to achieve the above effect.

==Transcript==
:[There is an airport security checkpoint where a queue of ten passengers is waiting to go through a backscatter x-ray scanner. Near the back of the line, Black Hat is standing next to a stand which says "Viagra $20". One passenger next to him is drinking a glass of water; another is contemplating the sign.]
:Security Guard (thinking): Oh god.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Sex]]

715: Numbers

2014-02-16T23:26:13Z

108.162.215.84: /* Explanation */ IQ

{{comic
| number = 715
| date = March 17, 2010
| title = Numbers
| image = numbers.png
| titletext = The typical internet user (who wants to share) has an IQ of 147 and a 9-inch penis. Better than the reverse, I guess}}

==Explanation==
The graphics use the popular search engine Google to show how many hits (or web pages) are returned as relevant based on a given search replacing <X> by different numbers.

;Bottles of beer
:The top one is of the popular children's song {{w|99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall}}. In this song, the singers begin with 99 bottles and with each repeat of the verse, decrease the bottles of beer by one. The graph shows a slowdown at 66 bottles of beer, something highlighted. A spike occurs at 49 bottles of beer, which seems to be a popular variant (possibly due to 49 bottles taking about half the time that 99 would).

;Boy/girfriends
:On the second row, the left graph represents how many girl or boy friends someone has had. They seem pretty similar, though the logarithmic chart may be working on that. To the right is how old (in grade) Internet users seem to be. Going purely by grade, the average is at 7th grade. However, using the notation of Freshman (9)/Sophomore (10)/Junior (11)/Senior (12), there's a notable resurgence.

;Penis length
:The graph on the far right of the second row describes male Internet users talking about their penis length. Several websites report 5-6 inches is considered average, but it doesn't appear that way on the Internet.

;Cup size
:The third row contains four graphs. The far left is the breast size of the female Internet user. The actual breast size is generally considered a bell curve around a B or C cup, yet the hits on Google describe almost an exact opposite trend. Taken with the above male penis length and this describes a trend where either the "average" person posting information seems to embellish or the majority stay quiet.

;I have never had a boyfriend
:Next to it is the number of hits per (mostly) female Internet users talking about how old they are without having a boyfriend. There's a spike at 18. The comic was written in 2010; as of 2014 the spike does not exist. Google behaves very strangely in this case, as it shows two very different numbers for each search.
{|class="wikitable"
!Age!!First number reported by Google!!Actual number of pages after advancing to the last one!!First number reported by Google after clicking on "More results from answers.yahoo.com"!!Actual number of pages after advancing to the last one (Yahoo Answers)
|-
|15||4||4||56,000||35
|-
|16||29,200||16||66,300||51
|-
|17||25,900||11||62,900||49
|-
|18||22,600||18||33,900||31
|-
|19||16,600||16||25,300||30
|-
|20||13,700||18||8,110||25
|-
|21||13,600||18||11,700||46
|}

;Glasses of water a day
:Third from the left is the number of glasses drunk per day. {{w|Drinking water}} has a commonly accepted standard of 8 glasses a day of being the most healthy.

;Number of lights
:On the far right is a description of the number of lights. The spike at four is due to a famous scene from Star Trek: The Next Generation, episode Chain of Command Part 2 where Captain Picard answers that there are four lights, despite pressure to answer that there are five. This is itself a reference to George Orwell's novel 1984, where Winston Smith is tortured until he "learns" to be unsure of the number of fingers being held up by his torturer, despite him only holding up four.

;Number of problems
:Bottom left is a reference to the popular Jay-Z rap song {{w|99 Problems}}.

;IQ
:Bottom right describes the IQ of the Internet goer compared to the average. By the definition of the test, when the test scale was developed, the average was 100 with a standard deviation of 15. However, the comic implies that the average claimed IQ closes in on 145, more than 3 standard deviations above the real average! (In reality, many studies have shown that the real average is now higher than 100.)

The title text refers to the searches. In this, it humorously states that having a 9-inch penis and 147 IQ is better than having a 147-inch penis and 9 IQ.

==Transcript==
:Google Result for Various Phrases:
:{Each panel is a scatterplot of the described X against the number of Google hits, with trend lines. The scales vary.}

:<X> Bottles of Beer on the Wall
:[There are peaks at 1, 49, 73, and 99. A dip in the middle is marked "They lose steam at 66." After 99 is a steep dropoff. The largest peak is around 100,000 hits.]

:I've Had <X> Boy/Girlfriends
:[Both lines descend at roughly the same rate from 1 to 10, although the boyfriend graph is smoother; the girlfriend graph has a small peak at 4 and a small dip at 6. The peaks are between 100,000 and 1,000,000 hits.]

:I'm in <X>st/nd/rd/th Grade
:[The curve is a bell peaking at 7th grade and about 500,000 hits. A second line labeled "Including Junior, Senior, etc." follows the bell curve until the peak, then dips only slightly for 10th grade and resumes climbing.]

:I Have a/an <X>-Inch Penis
:[The line ascends shallowly from 100,000 hits for 3 inches to a peak of 180,000 for 9 inches, then descends steeply to 20,000 for 13 inches.]

:I'm a/an <X>-Cup
:[A has a few hundred thousand hits; the graph dips to a few thousand for C, peaks again around 100,000 for E, and then tails off.]

:I'm <X> and Have Never Had a Boyfriend
:[The graph is mostly a simple bell, starting and ending around 300,000 hits for 13 or 21, but there is a sharp peak of 700,000 at 18 (well above the trend line).]

:Drink <X> Glasses of Water a Day
:[There are barely any hits below 4 or above 12; between the two it rises steeply to about 1,000 hits, with a steep, narrow peak of 10,000 at 8.]

:There Are <X> Lights
:[The graph descends smoothly from several hundred thousand hits for 1 to about 10,000 for 10, except for a peak of about 1,000,000 for 4.]

:I Got <X> Problems
:[The plot is extremely jagged, with the largest peak of 10,000,000 hits at 99, another of 10,000 at 96, and 100 and 88.]

:My IQ Is <X>
:[A smooth curve starts and ends at a few thousand hits for around 85 and around 170, with the peak at several tens of thousands for 140, but there are several prominent outliers: 100, 110, 133, and 142 are all around 100,000 hits, and 147 is around 1,000,000.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Charts]]

Talk:1204: Detail

2014-02-16T23:10:56Z

108.162.215.84: log scale

I'm not certain as to what the date should be, as I'm in New Zealand. I've taken one off of my current date (26th) as a precaution. Anyone who knows the right date (or right timezone) please edit it accordingly. --[[User:ZephireNZ|ZephireNZ]] ([[User talk:ZephireNZ|talk]]) 04:25, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

This comic arrive a day early, right?[[User:Afhoke|Afhoke]] ([[User talk:Afhoke|talk]]) 04:42, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
:Most likely a result of the time machine. [[Special:Contributions/184.66.160.91|184.66.160.91]] 05:02, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

Any idea if the typo Ne*ghborhood is intentional and what it might refer to? [[Special:Contributions/141.17.83.10|141.17.83.10]] 07:11, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
: It appears to have just been a mistake, as it's now been corrected on the panel at kxcd. [[Special:Contributions/67.51.59.66|67.51.59.66]] 16:48, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

:: I see what you did there. ;) --[[Special:Contributions/24.145.230.202|24.145.230.202]] 23:31, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

Forget electronic microscope. Where do you think they would be STORING the maps? Nearby galaxies? Other dimension? .... oh, I see: Black Mesa Research Facility is a google service company researching storage technologies. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 08:13, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

Shouldn't the vertical axis be reversed? If the Planck length is the theoretical smallest length, wouldn't most readers expect the smallest value to be lowest on the vertical axis? Thus the log scale line would angle downward, more clearly indicating that the resolution lengthy is getting smaller with time. The way it it is drawn, the first impression might be that the resolution length is increasing, not decreasing. Just a suggestion. XKCD is my favorite comic because I learn something new almost every day! {{unsigned|Matthew-e-hackman}}
: I had the same thought. Had to pause a moment to reassure myself Planck Length is a small thing. [[Special:Contributions/67.51.59.66|67.51.59.66]] 16:48, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
:: The vertical increase works better for the joke, as it is representing the concept of the resolution increasing, rather than the resolution distance decreasing, even though the latter naturally leads to the former.[[User:Pennpenn|Pennpenn]] ([[User talk:Pennpenn|talk]]) 05:20, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

Randall really likes pointing out the dangers of excessive extrapolation, doesn't he! One of his key themes. And this one is taking extremes to the extreme. [[User:Robbak|Robbak]] ([[User talk:Robbak|talk]]) 13:00, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

Representation == Reality? {{unsigned|24.84.201.240}}

Whoa i just figured. the lines meet around 2100 - and in 2101.war was beginning - a coincidence? --[[Special:Contributions/178.203.192.19|178.203.192.19]] 20:25, 26 April 2013 (UTC)
: Remember, [[286: All Your Base]]. [[User:Tryc|Tryc]] ([[User talk:Tryc|talk]]) 15:05, 13 September 2013 (UTC)

"Shouldn't the vertical axis be reversed?" I would say no. As the smallest resolvable detail shrinks, people refer to resolution as increasing, so a rising line makes sense. Maybe the axis should be denominated in pixels per meter though... [[User:Gardnertoo|Gardnertoo]] ([[User talk:Gardnertoo|talk]]) 15:19, 27 April 2013 (UTC)

Can somebody explain the line labeled "Earth" at the top of the diagram? [[User:Spongebog|Spongebog]] ([[User talk:Spongebog|talk]])
:The resolution of actual Earth remains constant as the resolution of Google Earth approaches [[Special:Contributions/96.33.168.232|96.33.168.232]] 04:40, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

It's also quite fun to compare the graph to the first publication of Moore's law, which had just one datapoint more but looks more or less identical to the comic. (And it still holds after 50 years... although there are signs it'll be slowing down soon...) {{unsigned ip|212.64.51.153}}

"The images get finer as satellite imaging technology improves" - this is wrong; however, I have no idea currently how to rewite the sentence elegantly, maybe someone else does. The Google Maps/Earth finer images do not come from satellites, but are obtained by aerial photography. No commercial satellite can produce such images (maybe military ones come close - just maybe). In fact, Randall has written about that: http://what-if.xkcd.com/32/ [[Special:Contributions/89.174.214.74|89.174.214.74]] 13:19, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

"Each tick in the scale represents a resolution improvement by 1000x." Am I being dense, or does the term "log scale" necessarily mean jumps of 10x? [[Special:Contributions/149.161.34.44|149.161.34.44]] 20:50, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

:"A simple example [of a logarithmic scale] is a chart whose vertical or horizontal axis has equally spaced increments that are labeled 1, 10, 100, 1000, instead of 1, 2, 3, 4." Taken from wikipedia's article titled "Logarithmic scale". [[Special:Contributions/24.251.209.253|24.251.209.253]] 03:40, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

:"Log scale" means that each jump of 10X is an each distance on the paper. It does not mean that there is a tick mark at every jump of 10X. It does not even mean that there are any tick marks. He put one tick mark at every third jump of 10X. One tick mark represents 3 jumps of 10X, for a total of 10X 10X 10X = 1000X.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.84|108.162.215.84]] 23:10, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Looks like Google Earth resolution will surpass actual resolution by 2120*...
*must have "Google Eyes" (TM) to experience better than actual resolution [[Special:Contributions/207.126.189.4|207.126.189.4]] 17:31, 20 May 2013 (UTC)dabeansdad

Can someone please explain why the Plank length being the resolution of the universe is a "myth", as it says in the explanation? [[Special:Contributions/75.69.96.225|75.69.96.225]] 01:22, 27 October 2013 (UTC)
:Thanks for your hint. It isn't a myth but fact in quantum mechanics. It's fixed.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 16:18, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

Randall is wrong: Google Earth does not gain resolution exponentially, but logistically. Admittedly, that's somewhat less funny. --[[User:Jolbucley|Jolbucley]] ([[User talk:Jolbucley|talk]]) 04:31, 29 January 2014 (UTC)