explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2995: University Commas

2024-10-14T16:43:55Z

162.158.158.97: Formatting

As Wikipedia notes, the {{w|Harvard comma}} is actually a thing, and synonymous with the Oxford comma. It's hard to understand whether Randall was just ignoring that.
It's interesting to also look at how the various commas are meaningful. For instance, the Yale comma here appears to be just plain ungrammatical, you'd never put a comma between a verb and a its direct object; similarly the Cambridge comma and Princeton commas are ungrammatical, you'd never put one after the word "and." The Stanford comma is unambiguously normal and it's not clear how you could have such a list without it (absent replacement with a [Stanford?] semicolon). The Columbia comma is being used to separate "mac and cheese" into "mac, and[,] cheese" which changes the semantic meaning (arguably into something meaningless, but maybe we're listing Apple Computers or even Macintosh apple fruit abbreviated). The MIT comma is a cute programming joke for multiline lists. Maybe there are hidden trick meanings (like MIT) I'm missing. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 23:03, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
:On their own, few of them are intrinsically bad, in the right context.
:*"Please, buy" - valid comma. Prefixed subclause (general plea).
:*"Please buy, apples" - valid comma (more specific plea).
:*"apples, mac" - valid comma (list-type).
:*"mac, and" - valid comma (potentially a conjunctive sub-clause).
:*"mac and, cheese" - valid comma (potentially a post-conjunctive sub-clause).
:*"and cheese, milk" - valid comma (follow-up sub-clause).
:*"cheese, milk, and" - Oxford comma. (Thus invalid, by default. IMO.)
:*"milk and, bread." - ...would be valid, as above, except for the sentence ending.
:*"and bread,." - Ok. Definitely the worst. (Except for the Oxford Comma, which is still worserer!)
:Obviously, combinations of them (or counterpart lack of them, in some cases) can clash badly. Some can work well together, but using ()s, ;s or feetnete* is often better than diving in and out of sub-clauses in the midst of a comma-bound list and potentially making it ambiguous whether you're diving in/out of a clarifying aside or replacing a non-terminating conjunction or perhaps one of the other usages to which a comma might apply.
:* Or just generally rewriting a multi-clausal sentence completely! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 23:30, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
::Sorry, no: "and," is bad grammar, except when illustrating a dramatic (but grammatically wrong) verbal pause; ", and" is fine for noting a pause used to divide a list, but it's best to use semicolons in a divided list. IE: "milk; bread; mac and cheese; blood, sweat, and tears". (Again, "blood, sweat and tears", would be atypical cadence if spoken aloud; therefore, the comma.) I don't care what style guides say, only what works well.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:11, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
:::What's grammatically wrong about something like "I drink beer and, on occasion, cider"?
::::Thank you for the "and, on occasion, beer and cider" example. Looking only at the given sentence about a shopping list, I wondered if the subordinate clause suggestion was edit-mangle or a very strange dialect difference. [[User:JimJJewett|JimJJewett]] ([[User talk:JimJJewett|talk]]) 02:34, 12 October 2024 (UTC)
:::::It wasn't "and, on occasion, beer and cider" given as an example. It was "[I drink] beer and, on occasion, cider". Depending upon what comes before the "and,", it ''might'' be the same sort of thing, but "beer and, on occasion, cider" probably is intended to mean "... beer (mostly) and cider (occasionally)". Your vesion might be somethng like "I drink beer, cider and, on occasion, beer and cider" => "I drink beer (frequently), cider (frequently) and a beer-and-cider-mix (occasionally)".
:::::(Noting that I've never tried mixing beer and cider, although I have done it with wine and cider. Long story. Though mostly it was mixed in my stomach, not pre-mixed. Probably made me the absolute drunkest I ever have been, but the effects took more time to take effect than those who were deliberately plying me with the drink(s) counted on, so their 'plan' sort of failed... I was younger and foolisher, but so were they! These days, I prefer my beer (typically a bitter, maybe a stout, generally not lagers/etc) unblended in any way. The same with my whisky (single malt, and in preference to whiskey). And wine's fine, but with a meal. Don't really go for ciders these days. If I want something appley, I prefer fruit juice, and if I want something fizzy (not all ciders are fizzy, but most of the major ones are) then give me a Pepsi Max (or something similar - I love the taste of aspartame in the morning!). But I rarely mix anything more than cordial/concentrate and water.)
:::::As to how people mangle/dialectise subordinate clauses, I couldn't say. I think it's grammatically odd to say "Write me!" (for "Write '''to''' me!), ''or'' to say "lit it on fire" (I'd just say that I "lit it", or "set fire to it"), so there's probably some strangeness of expectations between sublinguistic jurisdictions. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.165|172.68.205.165]] 15:50, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

:::Also, the cadence of "blood, sweat and tears" has nothing to do with the commas you give it. This isn't a case of marking verbal ticks, with... uh... transcribed notation. Either for official recording purposes or in the pre-scripting of speech for later performance. One is free to nuance the phrase how you want, with or without OC. The main issue about the OC is whether a list (of ''more'' than two items) should have each (non-final) element followed by a comma? Or are commas placeholders only for the "and"/"or"s that are omited? (And my opinion is that it is the latter, all else being equal. I apply that to semicolon-separated lists, insofar as I won't end with "...; penultimate item; '''and'' last item", but prefer to omit the '''and''' (or '''or'' ), casting whether it's a list of options or an accumulation by the introductory/follow-up contextualisation of that list.)
:::But, whichever standard you prefer, there will be cases where it reads wrongly to others. If you're lucky enough to spot it, then you can look to what you can do to adjust the sentence to remove ambiguity. This does not normally mean adding in any old commas where,,,,, you think a Pinter Pause is needed. (Maybe an ellipsis, in normal writing.) The fact that a grammatical comma may be where a spoken pause may crop up is not because the comma causes the pause. The verbal pause is (if not garbled out) caused by the same understanding of how clauses/etc require intoning under the circumstances.
:::But it is a rhetorical choice as to whether to intone "blood..., sweat... and tears" or "blood, sweat and... tears" or any number of other pausing strategies, as it is how you faithfully transcribe what has already been intoned. When merely listing these in text, your chosen style of grammar is the master. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.134|172.70.160.134]] 19:44, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

::Commas can go in a number of places in lists, and, occasionally, after the word "and". [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 23:34, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
::Potentially, anything is possible... I can see how a sentence like "Please buy apples, mac and cheese, milk, and, bread being out of stock, oats" would work, but I really don't see how the commas after "and" could work ''in this sentence''. [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 08:34, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

If each item in a list shall be followed by a comma then the MIT comma is quite proper. SDT [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.206|172.68.245.206]] 05:11, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

The UCLA comma may refer to the 8 clap, a chant at UCLA which is begins with a string of 8 claps. {{unsigned ip|172.68.205.178|07:33, 8 October 2024}}

I thought the UCLA & Michigan commas referred to quotes within citations. This isn't uncommon in literary studies, where you quote articles quoting books. Depending on your quotation style, this can result in a long string of 3-4 "commas" (as in: short lines in punctuation marks). If you place the quote between actual commas, make that 4-5. [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 08:34, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

I think the tirade against the Oxford comma in the article is not relevant for understanding the comic. "'To my mother, Ayn Rand and God' does not" is not saying that Ayn Rand is the mother. To express that one should write "To my mother, Ayn Rand, and to God". Thus the ambiguity can be resolved. I believe one of the editors is mixing in their personal taste here. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.71|172.71.160.71]] 09:03, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
:Tirade? Hardly. It explains when it doesn't help (and when it might).
:And I think you misread. "'To my mother, Ayn Rand and God' does not" indeed does not say that Ayn Rand is the mother. In fact it ''explicitly'' says that "'To my mother, Ayn Rand and God'"... erm... does ''not'' say the thing that 'To my mother, Ayn Rand, and God' ''potentially'' does. (See table below.)
:The choice of how to disambiguate "my mother, who is Ayn Rand", as a concept, is another thing and has multiple options. Disambiguating in the direction of a simple list is the contention surrounding the Oxford(/Serial) Comma itself (it is, by definition, being used in the list format), given that some circumstances are most helped by it and others are most helped by its absence. If you're strongly for the OC, you'll hopefully rewrite problematic OCed formulations so that you can use it. If you're strongly against it you should change problamatic non-OCed versions so that you can better go without one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.128|172.70.85.128]] 10:21, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

Inspired (a bit) by the Three Laws permutation table, a set of possible ambiguations from the straight list...
{| class="wikitable"
!A !!B !!C !!"A, B and C" !!"A, B, and C"
|-
|my parents||Ayn Rand||God||"my parents (who are Ayn Rand and God)"||''list only''*
|-
|my parents||God||Ayn Rand||"my parents (who are God and Ayn Rand)"||''list only''*
|-
|Ayn Rand||my parents||God||''list only''* ||''list only''*
|-
|Ayn Rand||God||my parents||''list only''* ||"Ayn Rand (who is God), and my parents"
|-
|God||my parents||Ayn Rand||''list only''* ||''list only''*
|-
|God||Ayn Rand||my parents||''list only''* ||"God (who is Ayn Rand), and my parents"
|}
:-* - Assuming no other "All You Zombies" and/or divine incarnation scenarios.
:...maybe it's too early in the morning, but I'm sure I'm missing other ambiguities I've commented on before. (Without necesarily going into the asterisked territories.) Anyone want to amend this? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.105|172.68.186.105]] 09:56, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
::Love it! [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 10:14, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
::There's additional potential ambiguity if you go with the singular "my mother" as opposed to the plural "my parents". "My mother, Ayn Rand, and God" (with the Oxford comma) could be listing 2 separate entities while indicating that my mother is Ayn Rand, or could be listing 3 separate entities. "My mother, Ayn Rand and God" (without the Oxford comma) could be referring to a single entity while indicating that my mother is both Ayn Rand and God, or listing 3 separate entities. (In a phrase like, "My mother, Ayn Rand and God, gave it to me," the comma after God indicates that it's one entity, but you lose that clarity with "It was given to me by my mother, Ayn Rand and God." [[Special:Contributions/172.68.70.66|172.68.70.66]] 14:25, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
:::What if my mother, Ayn Rand, and God are actually the trinity?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.87|172.69.195.87]] 08:23, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
::::I myself, was fully expecting one of the examples given, to be: "To my God and mother, Ayn Rand". [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:15, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

I realize that this comic focuses on University commas, however I feel that some mention should be made about the Walken Comma and the Shatner Comma! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.103|172.70.114.103]] 10:57, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
:What, do you,    mean by,   that? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.106|172.69.195.106]] 13:29, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
::Here's the explanation: [https://www.joeydevilla.com/2015/06/26/a-visual-guide-to-the-different-comma-styles/ Walken and Shatner Commas] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.228|162.158.62.228]] 11:43, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

{{w|Mac and cheese}} is probably not well-known outside the US (especially not under that name). --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.115|172.71.160.115]] 13:41, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
:As usual, the Brits don't know how to name food. "Macaroni cheese" sounds like the macaroni is made of cheese. But I added an explanation and link to the Wikipedia page. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:30, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
::Don't be silly, that would clearly be named "cheese macaroni". Macaroni cheese is clearly cheese for macaroni, and it's simply polite to serve macaroni to have it with as well. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.114|172.71.151.114]] 14:39, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
::: By the logic of your second interpretation, "cheese macaroni" is clearly macaroni for cheese. The lexical existence of this separate form of macaroni begs the question: what kind of macaroni goes best with macaroni cheese? The plain kind or cheese macaroni? The answer is neither! The best kind of macaroni to serve with macaroni cheese is clearly macaroni-cheese macaroni. But then what kind of cheese goes best with that? None other than (macaroni cheese)-macaroni cheese, which in turn is best served with ((macaroni cheese) macaroni)-cheese macaroni. This interleaving of macaroni and cheese never ends, meaning that no matter where you choose to stop, you will always end up with a sub-optimal pairing. So it's best to just not eat any form of cheese with any form of macaroni, to avoid disappointment. As an aside, the logic of your first interpretation implies that "macaroni cheese" is actually cheese that's made of macaroni. [[User:MelodiousThunk|MelodiousThunk]] ([[User talk:MelodiousThunk|talk]]) 12:48, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
::As opposed to 'mac and cheese', which sounds like a particularly unappetising dish made using a waterproof coat.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.92|172.68.186.92]] 15:43, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
::::Oddly, US English goes the other way with "grilled cheese", neglecting to mention that the cheese should be placed between slices of bread before grilling; in British English, it would generally be called a "cheese toastie". (Until looking it up, I was under the mistaken belief that it was a name for what we would call "cheese on toast", which also involves grilling the cheese, on the toast.) - [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] ([[User talk:IMSoP|talk]]) 21:16, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
:'Mac & cheese' is, sadly, probably more common in the UK now than the proper 'macaroni cheese'.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.47|141.101.99.47]] 08:25, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

I'm not opposed to the added red text in the Notation column, but it needs to be explained in the Explanation column. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.8|162.158.90.8]] 00:18, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Could this, at least in part, be about typography, not grammar and style? The depicted commas are not all the same. [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 10:42, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Specifically, MIT is the home of the Rust language, which prominently uses trailing commas after the last item in a list as a matter of programming style.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.211|172.70.214.211]]
* As best I can tell this isn't true? Rust was not developed at MIT, nor is it currently sponsored by MIT. As best I can tell, the only association between the two is an old copy of the book "The Rust Programming Language" hosted under MIT's domain. I would guess that the comic refers to it as the "MIT comma" simply for the reference to programming [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.97|162.158.158.97]] 16:43, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

ABAP uses dots as end-of-command delimiters. {{unsigned ip|162.158.202.92|06:13, 11 October 2024}}

== ! UNRESOLVED VERSION CONFLICT ! ==
There has been a problem with different versions. I shifted a paragraph, but the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2995:_University_Commas&oldid=352624 version that got saved] had 1615 characters less than before. A whole lot of rambling had been removed from the explanation, but there was no version conflict warning and no other saved revision in the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2995:_University_Commas&action=history revision history]. I didn't want to take credit for the changes, though I appreciated them, so I undid my edit, then redid my shift of paragraphs, and hoped that the other editor would reconcile the versions. That didn't happen. I'm writing this note to draw attention to the "lost edit". [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 18:28, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2995: University Commas

2024-10-14T16:43:21Z

162.158.158.97: Reply about MIT and Rust

2471: Hippo Attacks

2021-06-03T09:16:04Z

162.158.158.97: Picking annother hole in todays comic.

{{comic
| number = 2471
| date = June 2, 2021
| title = Hippo Attacks
| image = hippo_attacks.png
| titletext = It's cool how, when there's a number lots of people are curious about, but which isn't easy to measure, some random guess will get cited everywhere and become the universally quoted value. Unrelatedly, did you know there are 850 trillion waves in the ocean?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HIPAA-VIOLATING HIPPO. I think we have managed to capture the broad strokes of the comic, but it could use some copy-editing (especially my words), and I am not confident I am not missing some finer details. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The first part of this comic deals with unreliable sources on the internet. Neither "viral posts" nor "random listicles" are usually very reliable sources of information. They rarely cite their sources, and they are often published without much fact-checking, as published volume and impressive-sounding numbers are far more important for ad-revenue than actual facts.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ({{w|HIPAA}}, pronounced ''HIP-uh'') is an American healthcare law enacted in 1996. One of the most commonly cited provisions from HIPAA is the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which regulates the use and disclosure of protected health information.

In this comic, Cueball and Megan are discussing the number of {{w|hippopotamus}} attacks, which is unverified. Megan proposes an alternative explanation as to why this particular number is hard to come by: it would be violating the patients' privacy to create statistics of a very specific and unusual cause of death. The punchline comes with the pun on "hippo violation" ("HIPAA violation").

The title text amplifies the criticism of listicles. They sometimes provide factoids with regards to ill-defined, hard-to-measure numbers, and these factoids might end up in common circulation between such articles. One extreme example would be the number of waves in the ocean. Some problems with this definition would be:

* In which ocean/oceans?
* What is the smallest ripple that counts as a wave?
* When does one count two interacting waves as separate, and when does one count them as one?
* Even counting every body of water on the planet, this works out as around 400 waves per square meter, which is - to put it bluntly - a bit too stormy.

With different answers to these questions, wildly different answers could be reached.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Cueball sits at his computer desk, facing left. Megan stands behind him.]
:Cueball: I hate unsourced statistics.
:Cueball: ''This'' viral post says hippos kill 2,900 people a year, but ''this'' random listicle says 500.
:Megan: Makes sense.
:Megan: Publishing the real number would be a hippo violation.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Puns]]

2441: IMDb Vaccines

2021-03-25T11:16:01Z

162.158.158.97: /* Explanation */ Just a tyop

{{comic
| number = 2441
| date = March 24, 2021
| title = IMDb Vaccines
| image = imdb_vaccines.png
| titletext = I'm actually not sure if Vader and the Emperor count as a household or if Vader lives in that weird black egg thing or what.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SOCIALLY DISTANCED WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In another entry in the [[My Hobby]] series, Cueball is evaluating movies based on how many people would need to be vaccinated for COVID-19 in order for them to follow the CDC's most recent guidelines for how fully vaccinated people should act ([https://web.archive.org/web/20210324142553/https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html at time of posting]), assuming that the COVID-19 pandemic spread to the universes where the movies take place by the time at which they take place, which is impossible for the Star Wars movies, which take place "long, long ago", well before COVID-19 existed.

At the moment, he is viewing the final confrontation between Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader (formerly Anakin Skywalker), and Emperor Sheev Palpatine on the second Death Star in ''{{w|Return of the Jedi}}''. Darth Vader wears a breathing apparatus in a mask that fully covers his face, as he sustained massive respiratory damage several movies earlier. During the confrontation, the Emperor is killed, then Vader has his mask removed by Luke.

Cueball notes that if only Luke had been vaccinated, he would still be a possible risk to Vader. The various vaccines seem to do well to protect recipients from the harsher outcomes of the virus, but may not completely prevent them from mild infection and potentially then passing it onwards. Luke is young, healthy and probably less susceptible, were he to be exposed to the virus at any point, but Vader's health issues mean that he would be in much greater danger from such a respiratory disease without his own personal innoculation.

Cueball judges that Darth Vader's mask and breathing apparatus would protect him from the virus, at least to a limited extent which is not an unreasonable assumption- his suit has allowed him to [[wikia:w:c:starwars:Darth Vader's armor#Discomfort, limitations and enhancements|survive the vacuum of space for short periods of time]]. Cueball concludes that all the characters in this fight need to be vaccinated in order to prevent the spread of the virus, until the Emperor dies, at which point, only Vader needs to be vaccinated.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk, facing to the right, typing on a laptop. There is a thought bubble of his thoughts as he types]
:Thought bubble: For the throne room scene, I think it's all three until the Emperor dies, then Vader only. It can't be Luke only, since he's visiting Vader, who is clearly at elevated respiratory risk. Plus he removes Vader's mask!

:[Caption below the panel]:
:My Hobby: Editing IMDB to note the minimum set of people who need to be vaccinated in each scene for it to pass muster under current CDC guidance.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

2438: Siri

2021-03-19T10:38:13Z

162.158.158.97: /* Explanation */ its -> her to match she

{{comic
| number = 2438
| date = March 17, 2021
| title = Siri
| image = siri.png
| titletext = Alexa defeated her in a battle hinging on the ability to set multiple timers.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Science Girl]] thanks {{w|Siri}} on her smartphone for setting an alarm. In the next panel, she asks [[Cueball]], "Is Siri alive?", since AI assistants can seem to be almost human on a very superficial level. Cueball answers "No," since Siri is entirely software, and we don't generally attribute life to computer programs (the closest might be {{w|computer viruses}}, since they replicate).

Science Girl then asks "How did she die?" She may have already been treating Siri as alive because she could talk to 'her,' and treats this lack-of-life as a new state of being. So rather than interpreting the answer in a philosophical sense of whether Siri is something that ever ''can'' be alive, which might normally have been presupposed, she treats it as meaning that Siri had (just) expired. This may require a credulous certainty of 'facts' taken literally - it is not clear what could then be understood if Siri were 'proven' to be alive and talking again, afterwards.

Or perhaps she thinks that the software Siri is a software embodiment of an actual person (or possibly ghost of actual person), and Cueball was talking about the original person. We don't currently have the technology to {{tvtropes|BrainUploading|upload a person's personality into a computer}},{{Citation needed}} but {{w|Mind uploading in fiction|it's a popular science fiction trope}} and {{w|Mind uploading|many scientists think we will eventually be able to do this}}.

Another explanation could be that she associates everything into two categories, 'alive' and 'dead', without considering any intermediate or altogether separate categories, such as 'was never alive' or 'was programmed by people who are/were alive, but is not itself alive'. This false dichotomy causes Science Girl to misinterpret Cueball's answer of Siri not being alive as "Siri is dead."

Finally, she could have actually been asking about {{w|Susan Bennett}}, the voice actress that recorded the base sounds for the synthesizer, perhaps thinking she recorded the full line rather than just base sounds for the software to synthesize. Assuming Science Girl left the default voice, Bennett is very much alive, and Science Girl simply asked her question wrongly.

The title text explains that, contrary to the above explanations, Siri actually died in a battle with [[wikipedia:Amazon Alexa|Alexa]], another personal assistant, hinging on their abilities to set multiple timers. Siri can set multiple timers, but this feature must be enabled via shortcuts. Alexa's ability to do so is much simpler and more user friendly. Of the many actions that these programs are able to perform, this is probably one of the more trivial, so it's not very comprehensible, at least to those not themselves living as digital assistants, that it would be the chosen method for a duel to the death. One possible explanation is that Alexa itself led the battle to that arena, where she knew she could win thanks to her superiority.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Science Girl is standing and holding a phone raised up to see its screen.]
:Phone: ''Your timer is set.''
:Science Girl: Thanks

:[Science Girl is talking to Cueball, who is sitting at a desk using a laptop.]
:Science Girl: Is Siri ''alive?''
:Cueball: No.

:[Science Girl is standing on her own again, her phone and arm down at her side.]
:Science Girl: Oh, ok.

:[Science Girl is still standing on her own. She has raised her phone again.]
:Science Girl: How did she die?

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Virtual Assistants]]

2438: Siri

2021-03-18T10:37:24Z

162.158.158.97: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2438
| date = March 17, 2021
| title = Siri
| image = siri.png
| titletext = Alexa defeated her in a battle hinging on the ability to set multiple timers.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by BATTLE ALEXA. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Science Girl]] thanks {{w|Siri}} on her smartphone for setting an alarm. In the next panel, she asks [[Cueball]], "Is Siri alive?", since AI assistants can seem to be almost human on a very superficial level. Cueball answers "No," since Siri is entirely software, and we don't generally attribute life to computer programs (the closest might be {{w|computer viruses}}, since they replicate).

Science Girl then asks "How did she die?" She may have already been treating Siri as alive because she could talk to 'her,' and treats this lack-of-life as a new state of being. So rather than interpreting the answer in a philosophical sense of whether Siri is something that ever ''can'' be alive, which might normally have been presupposed, she treats it as meaning that Siri had (just) expired. This may require a credulous certainty of 'facts' taken literally - it is not clear what could then be understood if Siri were 'proven' to be alive and talking again, afterwards.

Or perhaps she thinks that the software Siri is a software embodiment of an actual person (or possibly ghost of actual person), and Cueball was talking about the original person. We don't currently have the technology to upload a person's personality into a computer,{{Citation needed}} but it's a popular science fiction trope and many scientists think we will eventually be able to do this.{{Citation needed}}

Another explanation could be that she associates everything into two categories, 'alive' and 'dead', without considering any intermediate or altogether separate categories, such as 'was never alive' or 'was programmed by people who are/were alive, but is not itself alive'. This false dichotomy causes Science Girl to misinterpret Cueball's answer of Siri not being alive as "Siri is dead."

The title text explains that, contrary to the above explanations, Siri actually died in a battle with [[wikipedia:Amazon Alexa|Alexa]], another personal assistant, hinging on their abilities to set multiple timers. Siri can set multiple timers, but this feature must be enabled via shortcuts. Alexa's ability to do so is much simpler and more user friendly. Of the many actions that these programs are able to perform, this is probably one of the more trivial, so it's not very comprehensible, at least to those not themselves living as digital assistants, that it would be the chosen method for a duel to the death. One possible explanation is that Alexa itself led the battle to that arena, where she knew she could win thanks to its superiority.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Science Girl is standing and holding a phone raised up to see its screen.]
:Phone: ''Your timer is set.''
:Science Girl: Thanks

:[Science Girl is talking to Cueball, who is sitting at a desk using a laptop.]
:Science Girl: Is Siri ''alive?''
:Cueball: No.

:[Science Girl is standing on her own again, her phone and arm down at her side.]
:Science Girl: Oh, ok.

:[Science Girl is still standing on her own. She has raised her phone again.]
:Science Girl: How did she die?

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Science Girl]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]
[[Category:Virtual Assistants]]

2437: Post-Vaccine Party

2021-03-15T19:44:46Z

162.158.158.97:

{{comic
| number = 2437
| date = March 15, 2021
| title = Post-Vaccine Party
| image = post_vaccine_party.png
| titletext = [Future update] Well, someone accidentally dropped an M&M in their cup of ice water, and we all panicked and scattered.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a POST-VACCINE PARTYGOER. Go into further details regarding individual elements of traditional parties vs. this party (maybe make a table?). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

As more and more people are getting vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus, and as the CDC released guidelines suggesting vaccinated people can start gathering in larger groups, including some groups of unvaccinated people, there is increasing excitement about the possibility to resume get-togethers, and have a party. However, being very cautious, Randall is detailing the plans for his first "post-pandemic" party by cutting it down from the scope of a normal party. Some of the cut-downs may make sense from a health safety standpoint, others are less likely to be health-based and may be just to deliberately make the party boring, thus limiting attendance, with the effect of it being safer for the few who do come.

* Drinks
Instead of soda and various alcoholic beverages, he's opting for small glasses of water. Alcoholic beverages could encourage a lowering of inhibitions, help some participants to make bad social decisions, to the detriment of hygiene and reasonable social distancing. Soda would have less of that problem, though some might argue the sugar or caffeine might have some similar effect.

* Food
Instead of traditional party foods like pizza, nachos, and snacks, only three "candy" types of sweets and one cracker will be provided. Pizza could be a health issue as people reach into a common pizza box to grab their slice, and likewise snacks if they are in communal bowls. Another possible motive for such meager offerings are the concern that people may have gained weight due to a more sedentary lifestyles while staying home a lot more during the pandemic, so he didn't want them eating a lot of fattening snacks and drinks at his party.

* Entertainment
Instead of music and karaoke singing and watching sports, the only music allowed will a ambient music, such that is would be hardly noticable, and the only entertainment being displayed will be Bob Ross, who was famous for his very calm, low-key, painting lessons. Music, singing, and watching exciting sports games can cause a lot more movement and airborne particles with the potential of spreading the virus.

* Activities
Board games, video games, ping pong, and good conversation are already relatively low-key activities, but not low-key enough. The only two games allowed will be 3-card pickup (trimmed down from 52-card pickup, which would typically use a full deck of 52 cards), and a single video game, the ancient "pong" game. Also, while conversation will be allowed, it will not be "good conversation", presumably preferring the conversation to be boring or uninteresting, or even repulsing. It might also be that Randall anticipates the pandemic [[2424|will have worsened peoples' ability to converse normally]], and so is saying that people won't be held to any 'standards' regarding the quality of their conversation.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Drinks

<s>Soda

Wine

Beer

Cocktails</s>

[next to the list]

Small cups of ice water

Food

<s>Pizza

Nachos

Various snacks</s>

[Next to list]

Three M&Ms and a saltine per person

Entertainment

Music

[Next to list item]

(Ambient)

<s>karaoke

Big screen</s> TV

showing <s>sports</s>

[Below crossed-out side of list item]

Bob Ross

Activities

<s>Board games</s>

[Next to list item]

<s>52</s> 3-card pickup

Video Games

<s>Ping</s> (Pong)

[Parentheses around Pong added separately, plus an arrow pointing from Video Games to (Pong)]

<s>good</s> conversation

Caption:

We're planning our first post-vaccine party, but we want to start slow.

{{comic discussion}}

2436: Circles

2021-03-12T21:14:58Z

162.158.158.97: /* Explanation */ Whoops, confused myself with dates. (Mastercharge in 1960s, Master*card* in '70s)

{{comic
| number = 2436
| date = March 12, 2021
| title = Circles
| image = circles.png
| titletext = ( MSTE ( AR ) CD )
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by Circular References. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic depicts five overlapping circles, themselves encircled by circles of various sizes which enclose two, four, or all five of the smaller overlapping circles. Several well-known logos consist of overlapping circles, and the larger circles reference these logos. These are: {{w|Mastercard}}, which consists of two side-by-side overlapping circles; {{w|Audi}}, which is four side-by-side overlapping circles, and the {{w|Olympic Rings}}, which are five overlapping circles in a "W" shaped pattern.

The diagram deliberately does not differentiate between the {{w|Euler diagram}} of circular 'areas of belonging' and the circles that are the things that belong, save for labels on the former that do not{{Citation needed}} appear as a belonged component of any other set-circled illustration. Without this common knowledge, though, ''they conceivably might''.

The title text is a textual representation of the Mastercard name as a Venn diagram containing the letters in the words "master" and "card" — A and R are shared by both, while MSTE and CD are unique to their respective elements. The basic Mastercard logo, from its development in the 1970s until earlier this century, placed the letters E and R upon the overlap of the two circles across which its name was emblazoned, but has since reverted to writing the whole of its various brand names beyond the circled areas, so now ''none'' of the characters could be considered to be members of either/both circles.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[five equal circles looped together. On the left, a larger circle overlaps 3 of the prior ones, fully covering 2, labeled "Mastercard". A larger circle overlaps 5 of the original circles, fully covering 4, labeled "Audi". A large circle contains all 5 of the starting circles, labeled "Olympics". The "Olympics" circle also contains the "Audi" one, which in turn contains the "Mastercard" one, with no overt drawn differences to the five core circles except for sizing and label-text.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Euler diagrams]]
[[Category:Charts]]

2436: Circles

2021-03-12T21:10:49Z

162.158.158.97: /* Explanation */ Revised according to Talk conclusion

{{comic
| number = 2436
| date = March 12, 2021
| title = Circles
| image = circles.png
| titletext = ( MSTE ( AR ) CD )
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by Circular References. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic depicts five overlapping circles, themselves encircled by circles of various sizes which enclose two, four, or all five of the smaller overlapping circles. Several well-known logos consist of overlapping circles, and the larger circles reference these logos. These are: {{w|Mastercard}}, which consists of two side-by-side overlapping circles; {{w|Audi}}, which is four side-by-side overlapping circles, and the {{w|Olympic Rings}}, which are five overlapping circles in a "W" shaped pattern.

The diagram deliberately does not differentiate between the {{w|Euler diagram}} of circular 'areas of belonging' and the circles that are the things that belong, save for labels on the former that do not{{Citation needed}} appear as a belonged component of any other set-circled illustration. Without this common knowledge, though, ''they conceivably might''.

The title text is a textual representation of the Mastercard name as a Venn diagram containing the letters in the words "master" and "card" — A and R are shared by both, while MSTE and CD are unique to their respective elements. The basic Mastercard logo, from its inception in the 1960s until earlier this century, placed the letters E and R upon the overlap of the two circles across which its name was emblazoned, but has since reverted to writing the whole of its various brand names beyond the circled areas, so now ''none'' of the characters could be considered to be members of either/both circles.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[five equal circles looped together. On the left, a larger circle overlaps 3 of the prior ones, fully covering 2, labeled "Mastercard". A larger circle overlaps 5 of the original circles, fully covering 4, labeled "Audi". A large circle contains all 5 of the starting circles, labeled "Olympics". The "Olympics" circle also contains the "Audi" one, which in turn contains the "Mastercard" one, with no overt drawn differences to the five core circles except for sizing and label-text.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Euler diagrams]]
[[Category:Charts]]

Talk:2436: Circles

2021-03-12T21:00:28Z

162.158.158.97:

AS for the overlapping edits, it is because this just showed up in my RSS reader. I was surprised to see that there wasn't anything written yet. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.206.92|172.68.206.92]] 18:56, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
*If Randall was willing to realign the Audi logo, I think he could have stretched the model to accommodate Disney at the 3-ring slot! [[User:Jameslucas|jameslucas]] ([[User talk:Jameslucas|" "]] / [[Special:Contributions/Jameslucas|+]]) 18:58, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
*Audi's logo has the four circles in a straight line, not staggered (</pedant>) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.58|108.162.237.58]] 19:09, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
**The same is true for MasterCard - the two circles are not staggered, but "in a straight line" (horizontal, that is) [[User:Mathmannix|Mathmannix]] ([[User talk:Mathmannix|talk]]) 20:15, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
ER are shared by both halves of the MC logo. Not AR. Anyone have another explanation?
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.41|172.68.132.41]]
* I was thinking about this too! Maybe Randall made a mistake, or is it something unexplained? We'll have to wait for an explanation.
::(Why are we (y'all) bullet-indenting?) Though the circles of the "(MAST(ER)CARD)" might well co-share the "ER", assuming that's correct, here the set {M A S T E R} and the set {C A R D} have clearly been put through an (unordered) set-union to highlight the {A R} that are not ''solely'' members of either original set. Don't know why that, in particular. Maybe it just worked better, and mixed things up better than the "(MAST(ER)CARD)" interpretation which doesn't really parody anything in the process... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.97|162.158.158.97]] 20:53, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
::Ok, just checked, and the word(s) "MASTERCARD" do(es) not appear on Mastercard logos any more, ''anyway'', having vanished/been relocated below the circles in various stages of cosmetic rebranding between 2006 and 2016. So "(ER)" enclosure wouldn't be strictly true for a number of years. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.97|162.158.158.97]] 21:00, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
My bad, I saw wrong. I thought it was between all the logos.[[User:Hiihaveanaccount|Hiihaveanaccount]] ([[User talk:Hiihaveanaccount|talk]]) 20:26, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2436: Circles

2021-03-12T20:53:28Z

162.158.158.97:

AS for the overlapping edits, it is because this just showed up in my RSS reader. I was surprised to see that there wasn't anything written yet. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.206.92|172.68.206.92]] 18:56, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
*If Randall was willing to realign the Audi logo, I think he could have stretched the model to accommodate Disney at the 3-ring slot! [[User:Jameslucas|jameslucas]] ([[User talk:Jameslucas|" "]] / [[Special:Contributions/Jameslucas|+]]) 18:58, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
*Audi's logo has the four circles in a straight line, not staggered (</pedant>) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.58|108.162.237.58]] 19:09, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
**The same is true for MasterCard - the two circles are not staggered, but "in a straight line" (horizontal, that is) [[User:Mathmannix|Mathmannix]] ([[User talk:Mathmannix|talk]]) 20:15, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
ER are shared by both halves of the MC logo. Not AR. Anyone have another explanation?
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.41|172.68.132.41]]
* I was thinking about this too! Maybe Randall made a mistake, or is it something unexplained? We'll have to wait for an explanation.
::(Why are we (y'all) bullet-indenting?) Though the circles of the "(MAST(ER)CARD)" might well co-share the "ER", assuming that's correct, here the set {M A S T E R} and the set {C A R D} have clearly been put through an (unordered) set-union to highlight the {A R} that are not ''solely'' members of either original set. Don't know why that, in particular. Maybe it just worked better, and mixed things up better than the "(MAST(ER)CARD)" interpretation which doesn't really parody anything in the process... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.97|162.158.158.97]] 20:53, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
My bad, I saw wrong. I thought it was between all the logos.[[User:Hiihaveanaccount|Hiihaveanaccount]] ([[User talk:Hiihaveanaccount|talk]]) 20:26, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

2436: Circles

2021-03-12T20:43:14Z

162.158.158.97: /* Transcript */ Minor error corrected and a little more added.

{{comic
| number = 2436
| date = March 12, 2021
| title = Circles
| image = circles.png
| titletext = ( MSTE ( AR ) CD )
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by Circular References. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic depicts five overlapping circles, themselves encircled by circles of various sizes which enclose two, four, or all five of the smaller overlapping circles. Several well-known logos consist of overlapping circles, and the larger circles reference these logos. These are: {{w|Mastercard}}, which consists of two side-by-side overlapping circles; {{w|Audi}}, which is four side-by-side overlapping circles, and the {{w|Olympic Rings}}, which are five overlapping circles in a "W" shaped pattern.

The diagram deliberately does not differentiate between the {{w|Euler diagram}} of circular 'areas of belonging' with the circles that are the things that belong, save for labels on the former that do not{{Citation needed}} appear as a belonged component of any other set-circled illustration. Without this common knowledge, though, ''they conceivably might''.

The title text is a textual representation of the Mastercard logo as a Venn diagram containing the letters of "Mastercard" — A and R are shared by both halves, while MSTE and CD are unique to "master" and "card".

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[five same-sized circles looped together. On the left, a larger circle overlaps 3 of the prior ones, fully covering 2, labeled "Mastercard". A larger circle overlaps 5 of the original circles, fully covering 4, labeled "Audi". A large circle contains all 5 of the starting circles, labeled "Olympics". The "Olympics" circle also contains the "Audi" one, which in turn contains the "Mastercard" one, with no overt drawn differences to the five core circles except for sizing and label-text.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Euler diagrams]]
[[Category:Charts]]

2436: Circles

2021-03-12T20:32:50Z

162.158.158.97: /* Explanation */ Darnit

{{comic
| number = 2436
| date = March 12, 2021
| title = Circles
| image = circles.png
| titletext = ( MSTE ( AR ) CD )
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by Circular References. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic depicts five overlapping circles, themselves encircled by circles of various sizes which enclose two, four, or all five of the smaller overlapping circles. Several well-known logos consist of overlapping circles, and the larger circles reference these logos. These are: {{w|Mastercard}}, which consists of two side-by-side overlapping circles; {{w|Audi}}, which is four side-by-side overlapping circles, and the {{w|Olympic Rings}}, which are five overlapping circles in a "W" shaped pattern.

The diagram deliberately does not differentiate between the {{w|Euler diagram}} of circular 'areas of belonging' with the circles that are the things that belong, save for labels on the former that do not{{Citation needed}} appear as a belonged component of any other set-circled illustration. Without this common knowledge, though, ''they conceivably might''.

The title text is a textual representation of the Mastercard logo as a Venn diagram containing the letters of "Mastercard" — A and R are shared by both halves, while MSTE and CD are unique to "master" and "card".

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[five circles looped together. On the left, a larger circle overlaps 3 smaller ones, fully covering 2, labeled "Mastercard". A larger circle overlaps 4 of the circles, fully covering 3, labeled "Audi". A large circle contains all 5 of the circles, labeled "Olympics".]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Euler diagrams]]
[[Category:Charts]]

2436: Circles

2021-03-12T20:31:58Z

162.158.158.97: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2436
| date = March 12, 2021
| title = Circles
| image = circles.png
| titletext = ( MSTE ( AR ) CD )
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by Circular References. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic depicts five overlapping circles, themselves encircled by circles of various sizes which enclose two, four, or all five of the smaller overlapping circles. Several well-known logos consist of overlapping circles, and the larger circles reference these logos. These are: {{w|Mastercard}}, which consists of two side-by-side overlapping circles; {{w|Audi}}, which is four side-by-side overlapping circles, and the {{w|Olympic Rings}}, which are five overlapping circles in a "W" shaped pattern.

The diagram deliberately does not differentiate between the {{w|Euler diagram}} of circular 'areas of belonging' with the circles that are the things that belong, save for labels on the former that do not[[Citation needed]] appear as a belonged component of any other set-circled illustration. Without this common knowledge, though, ''they conceivably might''.

The title text is a textual representation of the Mastercard logo as a Venn diagram containing the letters of "Mastercard" — A and R are shared by both halves, while MSTE and CD are unique to "master" and "card".

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[five circles looped together. On the left, a larger circle overlaps 3 smaller ones, fully covering 2, labeled "Mastercard". A larger circle overlaps 4 of the circles, fully covering 3, labeled "Audi". A large circle contains all 5 of the circles, labeled "Olympics".]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Euler diagrams]]
[[Category:Charts]]

Talk:2435: Geothmetic Meandian

2021-03-11T04:12:55Z

162.158.158.97:

Oh, this one's good. Just checked in (no, I wasn't hovering over the refresh button, my first visit today!) and one glance had me in paroxysms of laughter. But how to explain it? Gonna have to think about that. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.96|141.101.98.96]] 01:12, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

I made a really bad spreadsheet to understand better how it works: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fqmHwDmirJrsKPdf94PutFDw31DMAYxNeR7jef1jneE/edit?usp=sharing

Someone fix my ''awful'' transcript edits please. --[[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte49]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 02:31, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

Seeing the Python added to the Explanation, try this Perl (typed straight here, so not tested)...
## Your prefered variations of "#!/usr/bin/perl", "use strict;" and "use warnings;" here! ##
sub F { my (@vals)=@_; my $invVals=1/int(@vals);
my ($geo,$arith,$med)=(1); # Only defining $geo, so first *= works correctly!
while (@vals) { my($lo,$hi)=(shift @vals,pop @vals); # $hi may be undef - this is intended!
$arith+=$lo; $geo*=$lo; unless (defined $hi) { $med = $lo; last }
$arith+=$hi; $geo*=$hi; unless (@vals) { ($med)=F($lo,$hi) }
}
return ($arith*$invVals, $geo**$invVals, $med);
}
sub GMDN { my (@vals)=sort @_; my $lim=10**(-5); # Adjust $lim to taste...
return "Error: No vals!" unless @vals; # Catch!
return $vals[0] unless ($vals[$#vals]-$vals[0]) > $lim;
return GMDM(F(@vals));
}
my @test=(1,1,2,3,5);
print "Values: @test\nGeothmetic Meandian: ".GMDN(@test)."\n";
...debugged in my head, so probably fatally flawed but easily fixed/adapted anyway. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.109|141.101.99.109]] 03:04, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

Why so complicated?
perl -e 'use strict; use warnings; sub F { my ($s,$p) = (0,1); my @srt = sort {$a<=>$b} @_; for (@_) { $s += $_; $p *= $_; } return ($s/@_,$p**(1/@_),$srt[$#_/2]); } sub Gmdn { print join(", ",@_=F(@_)),"\n" for 0..20; return @_; } print join(", ",Gmdn(1,1,2,3,5)),"\n";'
(With interim results) SCNR -- [[User:Xorg|Xorg]] ([[User talk:Xorg|talk]]) 03:18, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
:''I'' can read your version (and I see you do explicit {$a<=>$b}, which indeed ''may'' be necessary in mine for real use, along with additional sanity checks, I will check later) but I wanted to make mine neat, and ''slightly'' tricksy in implementation, but still not quite so entirely obfuscated to the more uninitiated. TIMTOWTDI, etc, so I like your (almost) bare-bones version too. ;)
:(Is 20 cycles enough to converge in sufficiently extreme cases? Won't give "Too deep" error, though, even if it takes at least that long. There's a definite risk that mine might, as written.) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.229|141.101.99.229]] 03:45, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

Side-thought: is GMDN (nowhere near as logical an ETLA contraction of the title term as, say, 'GMMD' or 'GTMD') actually an oblique reference to the GNDNs as popularised/coined by Trek canon? Worth a citation/Trivia? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.97|162.158.158.97]] 04:12, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2435: Geothmetic Meandian

2021-03-11T03:27:07Z

162.158.158.97: ...neater.

Talk:2435: Geothmetic Meandian

2021-03-11T03:13:23Z

162.158.158.97: ...actually, the only sort *needed* is in GMDN

2413: Pulsar Analogy

2021-02-25T20:35:51Z

162.158.158.97: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2413
| date = January 18, 2021
| title = Pulsar Analogy
| image = pulsar_analogy.png
| titletext = The #2 cause of astronomer hand injuries is trying to do vector math when the second axis points off to the right.
}}

==Explanation==

{{w|Pulsar}}s are a kind of old, shrunken, fast-spinning star. They are usually {{w|neutron stars}}. They no longer shine in all directions, but instead produce beams of radiation out their magnetic poles, which blip by us in rapid pulses as they spin.

Ponytail, an astronomer in this comic, explains a pulsar's fast rotation with an analogy about a tape measure retracting. The analogies that Ponytail picks are incredibly poor ones.

Since the analogy does result in something that spins, the reader might think that, while they don't immediately see how it helps in understanding pulsars, they're willing to reserve judgment to see what is then done with the analogy; Cueball's response may suggest this sort of wait-and-see attitude. However, the analogy is likely to be useless or misleading, as the tape measure starts to rotate because the retracting tape is not moving only in a radial (in/out) direction. As a star collapses into a pulsar over unimaginably many years, its natural rotation rate is imperceptibly and eventually greatly amplified by its shrinking moment of inertia.

Further elaborations of the analogy, rather than clarifying matters, are successively more surreal. More misleading than the tape-measure is the idea of a laser measure being "exactly" like the emissions of a pulsar, which, although both pulse (and both for the same reason of holding pulsed light representation on our timeline in view of our deities), are produced in entirely different ways and are at best simply helping the mind hold the concept.

When a tape measure retracts, the part of the tape outside the tape measure is not going directly towards the tape measure's center but rather towards a hole in the side. This means the tape possesses some angular momentum relative to the tape measure. In addition, when the tape measure retracts, the part of the tape inside the tape measure rotates around a spool (which pulls the part of the tape outside the tape measure inside), so it also has angular momentum relative to the tape measure. When the tape is completely retracted, the tape can no longer rotate relative to the tape measure. Because of the conservation of rotational momentum, the tape measure will no longer spin at this point.

While pulsars also rotate quickly due to the conservation of angular momentum, the exact {{w|Pulsar#Formation,_mechanism,_turn_off|mechanism}} is completely different. Pulsars are formed when stars collapse due to no longer performing enough fusion to produce enough heat and energy to cancel out gravity. This causes the star to contract, which causes its mass, on average, to be closer to its axis of rotation, which causes the rotational inertia (also called the moment of inertia) to decrease. If the star's angular velocity stayed constant, this would cause the angular momentum to decrease, so the star's angular velocity must increase in order to offset the decrease in rotational inertia, i.e. the star (which is now a pulsar) spins faster. This method requires an initial rotation, which comes from the star. (The star's rotation comes from the dynamics of the gas cloud which forms the solar system in the first place.)

Some tape measures have a built-in {{w|laser line level}} and others have a built-in {{w|laser rangefinder}}. Pulsars emit electromagnetic radiation out of their magnetic poles, which is similar to a laser, but unlike the laser of a tape measure, the pulsar beam is emitted through the axis of the magnetic field. The pulsing nature of a pulsar comes from when the axis of rotation is not precisely aligned with the axis of the magnetic field, and the location of the viewer as the beam sweeps by. In the tape measure analogy the beam is at a right angle to the axis of rotation, so as long as the viewing angle isn't parallel with the rotation axis, the viewer would see the laser increase and decrease periodically as it the rotating tape measure points towards or away from the viewer.

While pulsars do demonstrate incredible {{w|Quake_(natural_phenomenon)#Starquake|starquakes}} and rotational {{w|Glitch_(astronomy)|glitches}}, neutron degeneracy is part of the mechanisms in which they are originally formed. During the formation of a neutron star, usually in the form of an initial inward implosion, the neutron degeneracy (basically the impossibility of neutron of occupying the same space because of fundamental constraints in physics that are studied by quantum mechanics) stops the implosion and redirects the shockwave outwards, thus producing a Supernova explosion. The analogy is with a tape measurer that hits a hand (the constraint) during its rapid rotation due to its retracting tape (the implosion) thus redirecting part of the energy towards the hand (s the supernova energy is redirected outside).

However, astronomers do not usually let go of laser tape measures frequently, so they are probably not the top cause of any type of hand injuries, as [[Ponytail]] said.

The title text mentions the {{w|right-hand rule}} in three-dimensional space. In a typical 3D coordinate system the Y-axis will point counterclockwise to the X-axis when looking down from the positive Z-axis. In academia, students are often taught to remember a number of mathematical conventions by using their actual physical right and left hands to align the axes. When the axes are in a different order, the left hand can be used in stead of the right, but there are a number of common operations in engineering and physics that use the {{w|cross product}} in systems where the first axis might point in absolutely any direction relative to the viewer. Using the hand rules, the thumb is aimed along the first axis, the forefinger along the second, and the middle finger along the third -- all at ninety degrees. So, when the first axis points off to the right, the right wrist is torqued to its full extension to make the thumb point that way while the other two fingers don't. During exams students can be seen performing this feat. People who learn cross products early in their life may develop other approaches for remembering these things, that don't stretch the hands as much, but then adopt the common approach once taught it.

Someone doing this could be seen as giving the finger to some unsuspecting standbyers. In that case the injury would be caused by the person interpreting this as an insult and hitting the physicist.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Ponytail are standing next to each other.]
:Cueball: Why do pulsars spin so ''fast?''
:Ponytail: Hmm, let me think of an analogy...

:[A tape measure is retracting above Ponytail's head. To the right of her head, a tape measure is spinning rapidly.]
:Retracting tape measure: ''zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz''
:Spinning tape measure: SNAP
:Ponytail: You know how when you retract a tape measure and let go, it leaves it spinning?
:Ponytail: It's like that.
:Cueball (off-panel): Oh, I see.

:[A tape measure with a laser instead of a measuring tape is spinning slowly.]
:Cueball (off-panel): And if the tape measure is the kind with a laser level, that's the beam of radiation?
:Ponytail (off-panel): Exactly!

:[Cueball and Ponytail are walking next to each other in silhouette.]
:Ponytail: And when the tape whips around and smacks your hand, that's the neutron degeneracy shockwave.
:Cueball: Sounds painful!
:Ponytail: Top cause of astronomer hand injuries.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]