explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2983: Monocaster

2024-09-10T08:54:56Z

141.101.99.190:

Unicycles aren't (or at least aren't usually) chain-driven. I might try to fix that if my phone stops being so slow that it feels like I'm using a 90s PC to do this. Maybe a restart will help. Rebooting in 10, 9, 8... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.76|172.70.91.76]] 07:46, 10 September 2024 (UTC)
:I just went in and Actual Citation Needed it (seeing lower comment, when editor reloaded this page for me, forcing me to rewrite, that may have changed now).
:*It doesn't look like a chain-drive. Could be hub-geared, but not the same thing.
:*Chain-drive to raise the rider (most of the mass) up higher will ''raise'' the CoG.
:*'Underslung' chain-drive (see 1880s example, [[1673: Timeline of Bicycle Design|here]]?) has problems. Pedals hitting the ground would be one of them, unless your wheel was indeed significantly larger...
:*...and if it is (perhaps for better off-roading?), this intrinsically pushes up the CoG. Perhaps you are trying to lower it slightly, again, then. But you can't bring the saddle (and crotch!) lower than the now higher top of the wheel. ("Timeline of Bicycles" version excepted, assumed assymetric? In [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-4b7d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 some manner]?)
:Add to that a few niggles about the bicycle. Not sure if intended to be a Moulton-style one (wheels maybe the classic 17", frame totally wrong) or a roadbike-style-ish one (frame relatively Ok, as drawn by someone not fully adhering to the design, maybe confused by some MTB variations, but clearly not in the ~27" wheel range, give or take). Of course, wheels are neither concentric nor circular, so depends a bit on which bits of the 'circles' are right for the intended arc and which bits ended up more casually doodled. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.99|172.70.91.99]] 08:51, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Hmm, Randall missed an opportunity to put a Penny-Farthing in there... though I'm not sure how that would have categorised given that it has two wheels of different sizes. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.178|172.68.205.178]] 08:19, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Re: unicycles, the COG thing doesn't look right either, but I was distracted by a (thankfully) now-deleted troll comment before and actually fixing the description is beyond my skills, especially on so little sleep.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.184|172.69.43.184]] 08:35, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2980: Lava Lakes

2024-09-03T09:38:05Z

141.101.99.190:

yoo wait this is cool first yay [[User:TheTrainsKid|TheTrainsKid]] ([[User talk:TheTrainsKid|talk]]) 01:05, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

yoo [[Special:Contributions/172.70.230.159|172.70.230.159]] 01:24, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

:Bro Why'd you delete my comment [[User:TheTrainsKid|TheTrainsKid]] ([[User talk:TheTrainsKid|talk]]) 01:29, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

::the wiki is a strange place where sometimes two people edit at the same time and it causes funny things [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]]{{citation needed}} 01:34, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Third post! [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 01:29, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

we're so back [[User:Certified_nqh|Me]]{{citation needed}} 01:52, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

I do not think this current discussion is actually about XKCD at all, much less this comic. Perhaps the internet itself is that sixth lava lake, with all the hot mess it contains. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.253|172.68.22.253]] 02:54, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

In fact, the Volcano Golf Course [https://volcanogc.com] is built on an active volcano, Kilauea.

: Also on Hawaii Island is the [https://www.fourseasons.com/hualalai/golf/ Hualalai Golf Course], which is one of several that have been built on the {{w|Hualalai}} volcano, which erupts less frequently than Kilauea, but is nonetheless considered active (the Kona airport is built on an 1801 lava flow). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.86|172.71.147.86]] 05:04, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
:: Immediately I start wondering why there might not have been a perfectly workable airport ''beneath'' the 1801 lava flow. (Ok, so it might not have had a Starbucks, as Moby-Dick was only written in 1851, so clearly you couldn't have had that chain of coffee-shops yet.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.208|172.70.162.208]] 08:59, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

: Right, I should've been more clear on what I meant, which was that "no sane person would build a golf courses directly over the crater of active volcanoes" [[User:TheTrainsKid|TheTrainsKid]] ([[User talk:TheTrainsKid|talk]]) 03:41, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
:: Check out the Volcano Golf Course on Google Earth. It's pretty damn close to the caldera. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.191|172.71.147.191]] 05:12, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

: FWIW, there hasn't been a lava lake in Kilauea's crater for a couple of years now. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.191|172.71.147.191]] 05:12, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Is the female character Megan, or [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Danish Danish]? Hair length and association with Black Hat suggest the latter. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.191|172.71.147.191]] 05:12, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
:In my [[1401: New|headcanon]], I think Danish (btw, <code><nowiki>[[Danish]]</nowiki></code> is the simpler link form, here) would not normally be asking ''what'' [[Black Hat]] did, but instead (maybe) ''how'' he did it or probably just "Did you..?", already having this in mind. She would be traditionally be devious/sociopathic enough to have made the comment just now ''in order that'' Black Hat would do (something like) this.
:Image-wise, the figure sits somewhere between the 'reference images' of Megan's hair (right thickness, grown a bit longer here) and that of Danish (finer and more casually-longer), and there are a number of ambiguous appearances that are just a subtle change in hair away from either, so I couldn't say for sure without taking into account the dialogue/activities involved. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.49|172.70.163.49]] 09:18, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

There ia not need to say "right now", this is superfluous language & a verbal tic.{{unsigned ip|172.70.162.163}}
:It adds context that this is not a fixed situation - that other volcanoes have contained and will contain lava lakes, while it's only a contingent state of the current five.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.34|172.70.90.34]] 08:15, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

Fifteenth comment![[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.174|141.101.98.174]] 08:10, 3 September 2024 (UTC)
:Last comment. And there's absolutely no way that I can be proven wrong, in this whole silly game of oneupmanship! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.208|172.70.162.208]] 08:59, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

If you fund my Kickstarter, I will add a 7th. Do not ask where, but rather take a guess :)

[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.190|141.101.99.190]] 09:38, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

2967: Matter

2024-08-11T14:35:39Z

141.101.99.190:

{{comic
| number = 2967
| date = August 2, 2024
| title = Matter
| image = matter_2x.png
| imagesize = 234x341px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = He was the first person to land a 900, which is especially impressive because pulling off a half-integer spin requires obeying Fermi-Dirac statistics.
}}

==Explanation==
In {{w|skateboarding}}, the term "goofy" means to push with the left foot, using the {{w|Footedness#Goofy_stance|opposite stance}} to the supposedly standard stance of pushing with one's right foot. The comic uses those stances as an analogy for {{w|antimatter}} in particle physics, which has the opposite electrical charge of corresponding matter particles that will annihilate each other upon collision, releasing energy proportional to their combined mass. In this comic, famed professional skateboarder {{w|Tony Hawk}} has obtained a professorship in physics and is teaching this very non-standard concept. As Tony Hawk does not have a degree in physics,{{Citation needed}} teaching inaccurate lessons could be a likely pitfall of his gaining a professorship in real life. Hawk is also the subject of [[296: Tony Hawk]].

Unlike other distributions of 'handedness' in the natural world (chemical {{w|chirality}}, or the {{w|skewness}} of {{w|Multimodal distribution|bimodal statistics}} describing asymmetries in nature called {{w|homochirality}}), 'goofy-footed' skateboarders are about as common as those using standard footing. Thus the analogy indirectly raises the issue of {{w|baryon asymmetry}}, the observation that ordinary matter is very much more common than antimatter because there is so little evidence of annihilation throughout the universe. Baryon asymmetry is often thought to have resulted from fluctuations during {{w|Inflation (cosmology)|cosmological inflation}} between 10−33 and 10−32 seconds [https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.251301 after the Big Bang], although there are several other candidate explanations of varying falsifiability.

The title text describes Hawk as the first person to "land a 900," meaning the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YYTNkAdDD8&t=1m30s successful completion] of {{w|900 (skateboarding)|a skateboarding trick}} that involves two and a half rotations (nine hundred degrees, as 2.5 × 360° = 900°). In physics, {{w|Spin (physics)|spin}} is a {{w|quantum number}} describing subatomic particles (see [[1862: Particle Properties]]), named in reference to the vaguely analogous ''but crucially distinct'' concept of {{w|angular momentum}} in classical physics. Obeying {{w|Fermi–Dirac statistics}} requires that the particles involved are {{w|fermion}}s, which include all of the electrons, protons and neutrons that compose the entirety of everyone's body and electrochemical state. Fermions all have {{w|half-integer}} (i.e., ...–1½, –½, ½, 1½...) {{w|spin quantum number}}s which do indeed include 2½, but only [https://physics.aps.org/articles/v7/s137 extremely rare particles] have a spin of 5/2. However, it's very important to remember that [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYeRS5a3HbE&ab_channel=ScienceClicEnglish quantum mechanical spin is ''not'' rotation, but instead how quickly the corresponding particle changes state when rotated.]

While everyone (and almost everything we ordinarily interact with except light and cosmic rays) is composed entirely of fermions, {{w|Boson#Composite bosons|any composite particle made of an even number of fermions, including entire atoms and their nuclei, are not fermions}} but {{w|boson}}s, which do ''not'' obey Fermi–Dirac statistics. Luckily, landing a 900 does not actually require obedience to Fermi–Dirac statistics because a skateboarder composed entirely of bosonic atoms would still have fermionic electrons in the orbitals of those atoms and thus would still obey the far more macroscopically fundamental and consequential {{w|Pauli exclusion principle}}. That principle gives atoms and molecules, which are almost entirely empty space, tangible presence and material form, allowing us to hold things, walk, make sound waves with our voices, employ any mechanical property of matter, and allowing sufficiently skilled skateboarders to land a 900.

==Transcript==
:[Tony Hawk (drawn with short hair) is gesturing at a narrow whiteboard on which illegible things are marked, what may be a Feynman diagram with one of the particle/antiparticle pair going into a circle (possibly representing a black hole, and thus depicting the popularized (incorrect) analogy for {{w|Hawking radiation}}), and at the bottom, a 2x3 table of illegible values.]
:Tony Hawk: In the standard model, regular matter will annihilate if it comes in contact with oppositely-charged ''goofy'' matter.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Tony Hawk becomes a physics professor

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Skateboard]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Statistics]]

2968: University Age

2024-08-11T14:34:57Z

141.101.99.190:

{{comic
| number = 2968
| date = August 5, 2024
| title = University Age
| image = university_age_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x388px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = This only makes it more urgent that we adopt my roadmap for the next 10 years, which should put us solidly in the lead.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] has been the leader of a university for the last five years. In a speech, he declares that his goal during those five years has been to make his university overtake the age of the oldest university in his state, which is obviously impossible.{{Citation needed}} The other university was then two years older than his own (215 years vs 213 years old). He states he has funded an intensive program to make the university five years older, or three years older than the rival university was. That would have happened anyway, whatever he had done (short of such gross mismanagement as to cause his university to cease operations), or if he'd done nothing at all.

The final line of Cueball's speech, "Unfortunately, I have terrible news", presumably precedes the announcement that the rival university has also aged 5 years and is therefore just as far ahead as they were before.

Universities often plan ambitious initiatives to boost prestige. However, true success often depends on factors outside administrative control, such as student quality, alumni achievements, faculty research, historical reputation, and external economic and social factors. While administrative efforts are important for operations and gradual improvements, a university's overall prestige cannot be engineered quickly through planning alone.

In the title text, Cueball's proposed "roadmap for the next 10 years" could mean more of the same ineffective efforts, perhaps merging his university into another institution that was founded before the rival university, or undermining the rival university so it ceases operations. A much more unlikely plan could involve placing the rival university in a spacecraft on a near-light speed journey, slowing its apparent age due to relativistic time dilation. Most likely, his plan is to continue doing the same thing as he'd done the last five years but making it sound like a new idea even though nothing will ultimately change.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is standing behind a lectern on a stage. He has raised a finger in the air while addressing an unseen audience.]
:Cueball: When I took the helm five years ago, our university was 213 years old – the second oldest in the state, just behind our 215 year old rival.
:Cueball: Under my leadership, we've funded an intensive program to increase our age to 218, overtaking our rival by 3.
:Cueball: Unfortunately, I have terrible news.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Time]]

482: Height

2014-09-08T20:01:57Z

141.101.99.190: /* Objects */ Mount Everest -> Tallest stilts

{{comic
| number = 482
| date = September 29, 2008
| title = Height
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = height.png
| titletext = Interestingly, on a true vertical log plot, I think the Eiffel Tower's sides would really be straight lines.
}}

==Explanation==
{{Incomplete|A number of the items are lacking descriptions, and all are lacking distances, as this comic is about distances this is more critical than descriptions, if the object is not real, an estimate based on the comic and scale is good}}
The comic is a companion piece to [[485: Depth]], which explores a {{w|logarithmic scale}} from Earth's atmosphere down to the interior of a single proton. ''Height'' begins this process by viewing logarithmically smaller scales showing several objects in the universe, both real and fictional, from farthest (top) to closest (bottom). The comic starts with [[Black Hat]] throwing a cat off the edge of the universe, probably a reference to {{w|Schrodinger's cat}} (as since it is outside the {{w|observable universe}} (for us), it exists in a super-position of both living and dead until we actually 'observe' it and force it to be in one of the states). It may also refer to the common myth that a cat will always land on its feet, a myth Black Hat appears to be testing to the extreme. The top of the universe is shown as the distance from which the oldest rays of light reach Earth.

Displaying height logarithmically while displaying width linearly noticeably distorts the shapes of the terrestrial objects. The title text notes that this distortion would approximately cancel out the curve of the Eiffel Tower's profile, and speculates that the cancellation might in fact be exact enough to convert its silhouette to a straight-edged triangle.

The {{w|age of the universe}} is currently stated as 13.8 billion years. But the {{w|Observable universe}} is about 14.0 billion {{w|parsecs}} or 46 billion {{w|light years}}, as shown on the top of the image.

===Objects===
All objects are sorted from bottom to top by their average distance from earth for objects in a solar orbit, and their current distance for others.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Distance
! Object
! Fictional
! Description
|-
| 435 ×1024m
| Black Hat and cat
| YES
| Black Hat kicking a cat off the top of the comic, presumably to determine whether it will land on its feet.
|-
| 435 ×1024m
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | Top of observable universe
|-
| 11.3 ×1024m
| {{w|Hubble Deep Field}} objects
| NO
| Objects of extremely distant galaxies found in a long-exposure photograph by of the Hubble telescope, 12 billion light-years away.
|-
| 9.46 ×1024m
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One billion light years
|-
| 2.36 ×1024m
| {{w|Great Attractor}}
| NO
| An unusual concentration of intergalactic mass.
|-
|
| {{w|Antennae Galaxies}} (colliding)
| NO
| A pair of colliding galaxies.
|-
|
| {{w|Andromeda Galaxy}}
| NO
| A sibling to our Milky Way.
|-
|
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One million light years
|-
|
| [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cat-on-a-keyboard-in-space Cat on a keyboard in space]
| YES
|
|-
|
| {{w|Magellanic Clouds}}
| NO
| These clouds are a pair of nearby dwarf galaxies.
|-
|
| Edge of Galaxy
| NO
| The edge of the {{w|Milky Way}} galaxy, the galaxy in which we reside.
|-
|
| {{w|Galactic Center}}
| NO
| The center of the Milky Way galaxy.
|-
|
| {{w|Crab Nebula}}
| NO
| Nebula are supernova remnants
|-
|
| {{w|Horsehead Nebula}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Orion Nebula}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Rigel}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Pleiades}}
| NO
| The Pleiades also have a derogatory remark, as per [[66: Abusive Astronomy]]
|-
|
| {{w|Betelgeuse}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Ford_Prefect (character)|Ford Prefect}}
| YES
| A character from {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}, shown near his home star; Betelgeuse.
|-
|
| The [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Romulan_Neutral_Zone Romulan Neutral Zone]
| YES
| This marks the edge of the {{w|Star Trek}} Federation.
|-
|
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | The distance that human radio transmissions have traveled so far. See {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} for a depiction of this. This is also referenced in [[1212: Interstellar Memes]].
|-
|
| {{w|Arcturus}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Pollux}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| The edge of {{w|Federation Sector 0-0-1}}
| YES
| The sector of space assigned to Earth in {{w|Star Trek}}.
|-
|
| "missing WMDs"
| YES
| A reference to the controversy about {{w|Iraq and weapons of mass destruction}}.
|-
|
| {{w|Sirius}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Barnard's Star}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Alpha Centauri}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One parsec.
|-
|
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One light-year.
|-
|
| {{w|Oort cloud}}
| NO
| A halo of ice balls surrounding our solar system, but missing the {{w|Kupier belt}} between Neptune and the Oort cloud.
|-
|
| {{w|Bupkis}}
| NO
| Yiddish for "nothing". Only a handful of objects are known to orbit between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.
|-
|
| A comet witch will destroy earth in late 2063
| YES
| To coincide with the latest biblicaly based prophesy for the [http://www.askelm.com/prophecy/p971105.htm end of the world].
|-
|
| {{w|Voyager 1}}
| NO
| An early space probe
|-
|
| {{w|Pioneer 10}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Pioneer 11}}
| NO
| By the similarity in appearance to Pioneer 10 this unlabeled probe must be Pioneer 11
|-
|
| {{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}}
| NO
| The "All hail Discordia!" after Eris is a reference to {{w|Discordianism}}, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek religion based around the goddess Eris. One of a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object|TNOs}} now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s.
|-
|
| {{w|Pluto}}
| NO
| One of a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object|TNOs}} now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s.
|-
|
| {{w|Neptune}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Uranus}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Saturn}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Titan(moon)|Titan}},
| NO
| Saturn's moon Titan is the only known moon to have an atmosphere - although nothing like the one on earth. There may be oceans on the moon, but not filled with water but with liquid methane and ethane. It is way too cold for liquid water. Still in such oceans life could also have formed.
|-
|
| {{w|Jupiter}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}
| NO
| Jupiter's moon Europa which may be covered by a deep ocean of water - which is again covered by layer of ice many kilometers thick. In such an ocean life could have formed.
|-
|
| Asteroids
| NO
| The {{w|Asteroid|Asteroid belt}} contains a spaceship from {{w|Asteroids (video game)}}
|-
|
| {{w|Mars}}
| NO
| Note the path, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits.
|-
|
| {{w|Venus}}
| NO
| Note the path, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits.
|-
|
| {{w|Mercury}}
| NO
|
|-
| 149 ×109m
| {{w|Sun}}
| NO
| The Sun is the star at the center of our solar system, around which the Earth orbits.
|-
|
| {{w|Discovery One}}
| NO
| The Discovery One from {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey}}, referring to the quote "open the pod bay door, HAL."
|-
|
| Planet Express
| NO
| The spaceplane is most likely the Planet Express from {{w|Futurama}}, where Fry once discussed "a big heaping bowl of salt."
|-
| 400 ×106m
| Human Altitude Record
| NO
| Achieved by the team of {{w|Apollo 13}} approximately 100km higher than the remaining Apollo missions.
|-
| 384 ×106m
| {{w|Moon}}
| NO
| The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite.
|-
|
| {{w|Snoop Dogg}}
| YES
| A rapper notorious for smoking marijuana, is shown as having the second-highest altitude record. Someone who is taking drugs is said to be getting high.
|-
|
| {{w|Space elevator}}
| YES
| A proposed method of transporting cargo or people into orbit, consisting of a large mass beyond geosynchronous orbit, a station at the geosynchronous point, a cable connecting it to the Earth, and a climber that can scale the cable. Space elevators are also seen in [[697: Tensile vs. Shear Strength]] and [[536: Space Elevators]].
|-
| 42.1 ×106m
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | {{w|Geosynchronous orbit|Geosynchronous Orbit}}
|-
| 20.2 ×106m
| {{w|GPS (satellite)|GPS Satellites}}
| NO
| are used for global positioning, and orbit at an altitude of approximately .
|-
|
| {{w|Lunar Lander (arcade game)}}
| YES
| The quote is a reference to {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} where the main character Ellie Arroway after witnessing a celestial light show up close says "Poetry! They should've sent a poet.".
|-
| 100 ×106m
| {{w|Space debris|Space Junk}}
| NO
| There is a large quantity of defunct objects in orbit around the earth. Amongst other things, this includes old satellites, rocket stages and fragments from collisions or disintegration. Space junk is also referenced in [[1242: Scary Names]] under the title {{w|Kessler syndrome}}
|-
|
| {{w|International Space Station}}
| NO
|
|-
| 100 ×103m
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | The {{w|Edge of space|official edge of space}}
|-
|
| {{w|Meteors}}
| NO
|
|-
|
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 1/10 ATM
|-
| 25.0 ×103m
| {{w|High-altitude balloon|High-altitude balloons}}
| NO
| Unmanned balloons, typically filled with helium or hydrogen. The current altitude record was set in 2002 by a balloon named BU60-1 which reached 53,000m.
|-
| 12.0 ×103m
| {{w|Airliner|airliners}}
| NO
|
|-
| 8.84 ×103m
| {{w|Mount Everest}}
| NO
| The worlds highest mountain.
|-
|
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 1/2 ATM
|-
|
| {{w|Cory Doctorow}}
| YES
| Cory Doctorow in his balloon. (first referenced in [[239: Blagofaire]].)
|-
|
| {{w|Space Shuttle Columbia disaster}}
| NO
| *The {{w|Space Shuttle Columbia}} and its seven crew were lost when it disintegrated at [http://www.asminternational.org/pdf/S21_jfap0601p082.pdf approximately 63,400m] in 2003. This number is inconstant with the height of the graph.
|-
| 6.00 ×103m
| {{w|Helicopter}}
| NO
| Though the record for helicopter altitude (without payload) is 12,442m, normal flying is usually performed much lower. In the US, 6000m is into {{w|Class A airspace}}, which is restricted and requires flight under {{w|Instrument Flight Rules}}.
|-
| 6.00 ×103m
| Clouds
| NO
| Clouds, though not actually labelled there are a couple clouds shown at roughly 6000m. While different cloud types vary in height, 6000m is roughly in the middle of the height range for clouds in temperate regions [http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/node/21]
|-
|
| [[Cueball]]
| YES
| Apparently still using Python as shown in comic [[353: Python]].
|-
| 800 ×100m
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 800 meters
|-
| 800 ×100m
| {{w|Burj Khalifa|Burj Dubai}}
| NO
| Now known as the Burj Khalifa, is the tallest building in the world.
|-
| 500 ×100m
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 500 meters
|-
| 400 ×100m
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 400 meters
|-
| 325 ×100m
| {{w|Eiffel Tower}}
| NO
| A famous landmark in Paris, France.
|-
| 300 ×100m
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 300 meters
|-
| 200 ×100m
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 200 meters
|-
| 150 ×100m
| Kite
| NO
| Kite string is commonly sold in large spools; a nice thick spool will probably hold 150 meters.
|-
| 140 ×100m
| {{w|Great Pyramid of Giza}}
| NO
| One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is located in Egypt.
|-
| 120 ×100m
| {{w|Baseball|Pop Fly}}
| NO
| In Baseball a 'Pop Fly' is when the batter mis-hits the baseball, which then follows a tall arc deep into the infield where it's easy picking for the other team to catch on its way down. The highest recorded pop fly, not including those that landed in foul territory, was 172 meters.
|-
| 115 ×100m
| {{w|Redwood Tree|Redwood trees}}
| NO
| The tallest trees in the world. At 115.61m (379.3ft) {{w|Hyperion (tree)|Hyperion}}, a Coast Redwood, holds the record for the tallest tree in the world.
|-
| 100 ×100m
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 100 meters
|-
| 20.0 ×100m
| {{w|Oak}}
| NO
| While oaks may grow to be in excess of 40m in height, heights of around 20m are more typical. The person in the tree saying, "Hey, squirrels!" is a reference to [[167: Nihilism]].
|-
| 16.4 ×100m
| Tallest stilts
| NO
| The tallest {{w|stilts}} recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records (as of November 2006) were 16.4 meters, or nearly 54 feet.
|-
| 13.0 ×100m
| {{w|Brachiosaurus|Brachiosaur}}
| NO
| A large genus of dinosaur.
|-
| 8.00 ×100m
| {{w|Giraffe}}
| NO
| The the tallest living terrestrial animal, with fully grown adults reaching in excess of 5m. While labelled 8m in the comic, the [http://www.big-animals.com/the-giraffe-the-worlds-tallest-animal/ record] for height is reported at 5.8m.
|-
| 1.70 ×100m
| {{w|Human height|Folks}}
| NO
|
|}

==Transcript==
:[Map of the universe from observable universe to Earth. Each area of item is labelled.]
:[Labels left to right, up to down:]
:[Black Hat is standing on top, throwing a black kitty down.]
:Black Cat: mrowl!
::Top of Observable Universe
::46 Billion Light Years Up
::Hubble Deep Field Objects
:-One Billion Light Years-
::Great Attractor
:Antennae Galaxies (Colliding)
:Andromeda
:::Holy Crap Lots of Space
::-One Million Light Years-
::Magellanic Clouds
::Edge of Galaxy
::Galactic Center
::Crab Nebula
::Orion Nebula
::Horsehead Nebula
::Romulan Neutral Zone
:::The PLEIADES, Duh.
::Rigel
::Betelgeuse
::Ford Prefect
::-Expanding Shell of Radio Transmissions [Arrows are pointing up.]-
::Edge of Federation Sector 0-0-1
::Pollux
::Arcturus
::Missing WMDs
::Alpha Centauri
::Sirius
::Barnard's Star
:-One Parsec-
::-One Light Year-
::Oort Cloud (?)
::Bupkis
::Comet which will destroy Earth in late 2063
::Pioneer 10
::Eris (All hail Discordia!)
::Voyager I
::Pluto (Not a planet. Neener neener.)
::Neptune
::Uranus
:Saturn
::Asteroids
:::<~life~>
::Jupiter
::Venus
::Mars
::Sun
::Mercury
::Aircraft: Hey a heaping bowl of salt!
::"Open the fridge door, Hal."
::Moon
::Human Altitude Record (Apollo 13)
::2nd Place: Snoop Dogg
::Space Elevator - One of these days, promise!
::-Geosynchronous Orbit-
::GPS Satellites
::Lunar lander: In retrospect, they shouldn't have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land
::International Space Station
::Space Junk
::-Official Edge of Space (100 km)-
::Meteors
::-1/10 ATM-
::High Altitude Balloons
::Airliners
::-1/2 ATM-
::Cory Doctrow
::Shuttle Columbia Lost
::Everest
::Helicoptors
::Cueball: Woo Python!
::[vertical scale along right side of image, starting at 1 km and getting progressivly smaller and smaller.]
::-800 m-
::Burj Dubai (~800 m)
::Eiffel Tower (325 m)
::Kites
::Great Pyramid (140 m)
::Redwood (115 m)
::Pop Fly
::Oak (20 m)
::"Hey Squirrels!"
::Tallest Stilts
::Brachiosaur (13 m)
::Giraffe (8 m)
::[Megan and Cueball.] Folks
:The Observable Universe, from Top to Bottom ~On a log scale~
:Sizes are not to scale, but heights above the Earth's surface are accurate on a log scale (that is, each step up is double the height.)

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]