explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2990: Late Cenozoic

2024-09-26T05:28:51Z

162.158.41.22:

first explanation, probably bad [[User:Sci09273.15|Sci09273.15]] ([[User talk:Sci09273.15|talk]]) 19:41, 25 September 2024 (UTC)
:It's a fine starting point. Welcome! [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:51, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

It would have been so cute if Randall had given the lecturer alien some features of Miss Lenhart. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:53, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

Luckily for future paleontologists, our infrastructure and earthmoving projects are sturdy enough that they should still look kinda funny in a hundred million years. They might not assume that there was a technological civilization until they identified the Manhattan Iron Deposits as ancient vehicles or found similar proof, but they would know SOMETHING weird was going on. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 21:38, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

The gap in the fossil record between their extinction and sudden resurgence will be explained by a chance discovery of a prestine copy of the documentary Jurassic Park.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.208.183|172.69.208.183]] 23:50, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

Hey, I made this same exact joke (offline) over 20 years ago! I believe that means [[827: My Business Idea|I am entitled to compensation]]. [[User:183231bcb|183231bcb]] ([[User talk:183231bcb|talk]]) 01:39, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

-Thinking emoji- pretty sure the typical museum dino skeleton is 100% fossil free. I might recall the dino (and similar rareness of fossils) skeletons on display as cast plaster (of paris?). SDT [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.17|172.70.38.17]] 03:04, 26 September 2024 (UTC)
: As usual, the answer to the question "how much of a displayed dinosaur skeleton is composed of authentic fossil bones" is "it depends". See [https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/which-dinosaur-bones-are-real this article] from Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History for intel.

Talk:2966: Exam Numbers

2024-08-02T04:23:40Z

162.158.41.22: r

pre-algebra: 4, calculus: pi^2 / 4 (about 2.467), physics: cosmological constant: depends on how you measure it [[Special:Contributions/162.158.167.48|162.158.167.48]] 18:11, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

Game theory: -5x10⁶ (maybe helpful, maybe not... just be thankful I didn't include an ''i'' factor in there somewhere...) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.185|172.70.162.185]] 18:20, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
:Interesting; I went with ∞+10. So, between our answers, that makes the average... [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 05:21, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

Could somebody reformat all the math here in whatever LaTeX plugin this wiki uses? --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.222.102|162.158.222.102]] 18:35, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
:Probably not, because the MathML here is broken. But, also, nothing I see requires anything particularly complicated, it can all stay in fairly straightforward (standardly formatted) text. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.224|141.101.98.224]] 18:44, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
I had to look up "TREE(3)." Seriousness aside, I think the largest number would be the astrological sign 1 that has its end_points_ as galaxy clusters. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.184|172.68.245.184]] 19:26, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
:Which astrological sign? Search engines aren't helping. [[User:Onestay|Onestay]] ([[User talk:Onestay|talk]]) 20:41, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
::The nonexistent one I just made up that looks like a "1." 😃 [[Special:Contributions/172.71.222.6|172.71.222.6]] 21:06, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
:'OAK'? 'ELM'? 'ASH?' 'BOX'? 'YEW'? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.165|141.101.98.165]] 08:52, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

If infinity _is_ a number, it might be a possible solution to the game theory question. The average of any set of numbers that includes infinity is infinity, and infinity + 10 is still infinity. I probably wouldn't try that in most classes, but a game theory professor might approve "gaming" the system, as it were. {{unsigned ip|172.70.39.44}}
:If I would prefer no-one (else) to win, I might submit -∞ as my answer. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.74|172.70.90.74]] 20:13, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
::If I really wanted to mess with them, I would submit i. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.248|172.70.160.248]] 08:54, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

I did a bit of a deep dive into wikipedia and the googology wiki and the answer to the last question depends on a few things (along with assuming ZFC). If transfinite ordinals count as numbers, then those at the end of {{w|List of large cardinal properties}} take the cake (if i'm reading it right). Otherwise, something based off [https://googology.fandom.com/wiki/Rayo%27s_number Rayo's number] is the best googologists have come up with so far. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.246.149|172.69.246.149]] 20:18, 31 July 2024 (UTC)Bumpf

:How about "On, in the context of MK set theory"? MK is a standard way to extend ZFC by allowing classes as mathematical objects, so On (the class of all set-size ordinals) is a class-sized "ordinal". But MK doesn't allow proper classes to be contained in any object, so "On+1" doesn't exist except as a definable hyperclass. Thus, On is the biggest "number" in a model of MK set theory.{{unsigned ip|172.68.205.151}}

Isn’t the joke in the pre-algebra that it would require algebra in order ro calculate? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.70.135|172.68.70.135]] 20:36, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
:Yes. I agree that it would be worth adding wording along the lines that “the joke here is that you need algebra to solve the equation”. [[User:Dúthomhas|Dúthomhas]] ([[User talk:Dúthomhas|talk]]) 20:56, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
: I interpreted the 'pre-' bit as being more like 'proto-' - i.e. it's not fully proper algebra, but it's the kind of work you would do in preparation for tackling proper algebra.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.156|172.68.186.156]] 08:58, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

You know, formatting math on this wiki would be a lot easier if the Math extension were correctly installed, but evidently it's not: <math>\int_0^\pi x \sin^2 x \;dx</math> [[User:Zmatt|Zmatt]] ([[User talk:Zmatt|talk]]) 22:22, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

Is that integral really correct? I asked Wolfram Alpha and it gave me
: integral x sin^2(x) dx = 1/8 (2 x (x - sin(2 x)) - cos(2 x)) + constant
which does not seem to be the same as
: −2x sin(2x)+cos(2x)−2x)/28 + C.
But maybe there's something with half-angle formulas that makes them the same? … but I don't think so, they don't evaluate the same for x=0. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 02:56, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

:Yup, looks like it was supposed to be
:: -(2x sin(2x)+cos(2x)-2x^2)/8
:but they messed up the places of the negation and square.
:Though the important part here isn't what it is at any f(x), but what it is for any f(x)-f(y). In this particular case, f(pi)-f(0). [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.121|162.158.41.121]] 04:49, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

As to '''biggest numbers:''' I thought most people would say the answers revolved around "nine-stuffing." For a kindergartener, stuff in as many bare <code>9</code>s as possible. For a postgrad, mix in exponentiation and write your numbers even smaller than a kindergartener can. <code>9^9^9^9...</code> or perhaps <code>99^99^99...</code> or…I'm not sure what's optimal. Of course, I'm not math postdoc ;) Or maybe some integrals or big-∏ notation. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 12:41, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
:Mastered division in preschool, learned exponents and logarithms in kindergarten. When I got asked this very question, my answer was (10^(10^9-1)-1), which is 999999999 "9"s. When told off for a "wrong answer format", I asked the teacher exactly how long she expected me to spend writing out literally nearly a billion digits to answer "properly" and whether she could afford that much stationery. She have me an A+. I knew the lower numbers don't actually matter so much, but it still took me until first grade to properly get into the programmatic mindset, and now the biggest finite integer I can properly consider is (2^(2^48)), which...
::10^9-1 = 999999999
::2^48 = 281474976710656
:And those are the higher numbers, so even though the lower ones are 10 versus 2, it's pretty clear which number is bigger, no? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.197|172.71.150.197]] 23:22, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
::If you answer "the biggest number you can think of" with "<some number> minus one", then I think you would rightfully have done yourself out of a mark... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.128|141.101.98.128]] 23:59, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
:::What even is thinking? Does math necessarily count? What are numbers? Whole numbers only? No living human can yet prove whether or not pi^(pi^(pi^pi)) is an integer, even though it's less than 2^(2^61). To me, "nine nines of nines" is entirely reasonable for a kindergartener who knows about exponents to answer, and while I may be slightly surprised at knowing proper expression, b^p-1 (seen both as 10^9-1 for "nine nines" and 10^(...)-1 for "of nines") appears in a lot of math things, e.g. the biggest signed 32 bit integer, 2147483647, is 2^31-1. Just because a normal internet connected computer can only count octets from 0 to 255, does that mean 255 being 2^8-1 is a more wrong answer than 2^8, which it "thinks" is 0? Does that make 0 automatically the largest number anybody can think of? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.200|172.68.23.200]] 00:29, 2 August 2024 (UTC)

The PhD Cosmology question is easy, actually. Just write down H0 (imagine that 0 is subscript, I don't know how (if) I can format this comment). It doesn't ask you to write down the ''value'' of the constant, just the constant itself.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.103.118|172.71.103.118]] 14:56, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
:Well if you're going to get smartass about it, the last question is easy too - you just write out "THE BIGGEST NUMBER YOU CAN THINK OF"[[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.56|172.68.186.56]] 15:17, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

If you asked a psychologist what is the biggest number you can think of, they'd probably say "about 5". Anything more than that, and you're not really thinking of the number - you're just thinking of the name of the number.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.128|172.68.186.128]] 15:44, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
:I can absolutely visualize a grid of 9, 16, or 25. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.22|162.158.41.22]] 04:23, 2 August 2024 (UTC)

Given that postgraduate math should be real math, according to [[899: Number Line]] the largest number should be 8. My first thought for that question was card(R), as it is not really possible to prove that the number you thought about is larger than that. (Granted, the powerset of the reals is larger, if you fix an interpretation of R). --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.253.131|172.68.253.131]] 17:25, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

'''Prime notation in integrand?''': Here we go again, I guess. In [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2966:_Exam_Numbers&diff=next&oldid=347876 this edit], 172.68.2.126 changed the working of the integral to include expressions with a prime inside the integrand, like <code> ¼ ∫0π x (sin 2x)’ dx</code>.
I…have no idea what the prime is supposed to be indicating here…differentiation?
Even if this notation is meaningful (as it surely must be?), I don't think we should be using it here. Sure, many lay readers won't understand calculus at all, but for those that do, keeping it at a level understandable to a high-school calculus student seems wise. But since I don't understand it, I wanted to post before changing it back. What does it mean? [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 19:58, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

== What is a number? ==

Infinity is _not_ a number. [[User:Dúthomhas|Dúthomhas]] ([[User talk:Dúthomhas|talk]]) 19:39, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

Infinity is absolutely not a number, and is the one answer I would mark as unambiguously wrong for the last one. Just say TREE(G_64) or something. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.31|162.158.154.31]] 20:15, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
:This is correct. No one in post-grad math would write “infinity” and expect that answer to work. Infinity is NOT a number except for seven-year-olds. Yet the explanation above continues to posit it as a possible correct answer. [[User:Dúthomhas|Dúthomhas]] ([[User talk:Dúthomhas|talk]]) 20:49, 31 July 2024 (UTC)
::I qualify as a "post-grad math", and yet, I think infinity would have been a perfectly valid answer. Let me explain. The term "number" without further context is a bit vague, because there are several possible generalizations of natural numbers (something that presumably everyone agrees to call a "number"), and they are not compatible, ie. there is not a single generalization that generalizes them all. So we have to choose which generalization makes sense in the current context. Since the question is about thinking how big a number is, I naturally thought that the adequate generalization would be one that focuses on the order on natural numbers, ie. ordinals. In that case, my answer to this question would be "the class of numbers I can think of is not bounded, therefore there is no such thing such as a 'biggest number I can think of'". But if I had to write down a big number, I would write ε_{ε_{ε_{...}}} up until I filled the page, because that's the most efficient way I know to write a big, *big* infinity. Which is a number. (and I'm not seven, just to be clear) [[User:Jthulhu|Jthulhu]] ([[User talk:Jthulhu|talk]]) 08:35, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
:In IEEE floating point math, Infinity is ''not'' Not A Number. The latter is an indication of error (in a context where errors can't be signalled immediately) and an entirely separate concept to infinity. But both are not Normal Numbers. Or even Denormalized Numbers. Floating point math is a whole lot trickier than it appears to be at first glance, and only extremely tangentially related to mathematical reals. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.54|172.68.205.54]] 00:48, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
::I would have written this, but I saw that your comment already explained the two points I would have made, so, well, well done! [[User:Jthulhu|Jthulhu]] ([[User talk:Jthulhu|talk]]) 08:35, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
:If I write a song titled "Infinity" that was part of an opera, then it would be a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_number number]. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.175.141|162.158.175.141]] 13:26, 1 August 2024 (UTC)
A number, by definition, is a construct used to classify and/or compare values. How rigorous this needs be for one limits the extent to which they accept things as being a number. Even things like "apple" could be interpreted as (dimensioned) numbers, with a possible value being "1 fruit"; In that regard, one may consider things like apple=orange<grapes.

Just "infinity" is nearly useless in this regard, as it's "no end thing". Usually interpreted (when necessary) as the countable infinite cardinal x=aleph_null, this prevents most useful comparisons, including dimensional analysis since x^n=x for all counting (aka. finite positive integer) n. Spacetime may or may not be boundless, but we can't tell how many edges may or may not loop. Is it infinity? Yes. Is it infinite? God only knows. Can you *count to it*? God can. Does that make it a number? Depends. Is "infinity plus one" a sane concept? No, it can't be finite, ordinal, and/or real in a way addition is defined; It's without end, and if you could add to it, that would indicate an end.

In contrast, classification has its roots in trade, and barter, and tipping. How much of a thing is enough, but not too much. Somebody may accept between 1/2 and 2/3 of a pie you're splitting, because less wouldn't be fair and more may give them a stomach ache; Is 3<=6x<=4 a number? It's similar in uselessness to "infinity", but whether something is less or more can at least still be established within its range. In the limit, Surreal numbers are the principal example of classification, taking the arithmetic mean of the maximum and minimum of their lower and upper bounds, or the predecessor or successor, or zero. For example, y={y|1} is the biggest number less than one, with z<=y<1 for all z<1. It's less than one, but not any "smaller" than one, with an immeasurably infinitesimal difference 0<1-y.

Choice of axioms is very important for all this, since its full extent can render everything except finite non-negative integers "not a number" (by Presburger Arithmetic), or allow everything up to and including unique antichain cardinalities (by Martin's Maximum).

The sixth power of the smallest ordinal with the cardinality of the continuum in the constructed universe (w_1^6 where beth_n=C(w_n)) is the biggest number I can personally conceptualize, although I can consistently work with w_2 in this system as well. Does the fact that this is infinite make it any less useful as a number than 2.5? No. It says I can think accurately about all the standard ways of comparing things in up to 6 infinitely divisible dimensions. Just because one cannot necessarily picture something others can't doesn't mean it doesn't exist. If a one-eyed person can only see a 2 spatial + 1 temporal dimensional image, that doesn't mean depth doesn't exist, it just means it's "hidden" from that perspective. 3+1+2 has two "hidden" dimensions compared to normal 3+1 spacetime, and beth_1 is infinitely divisible unlike the quantum (at most beth_0) nature of our known universe, but I can still work with 3+1+1, and 3+1+2 in the same way people can think about a (possibly looping) universe where everything can be bigger or smaller, and spatial geometry itself may be some degree of spherical, and people have been working with fractions since antiquity, so why should I limit myself to what other people can grasp?

In summary: "number" is too vague for claiming most things "aren't" to be reasonable. Infinite values (that aren't just "infinity", that's vague enough by itself to be almost as unreasonable) are just one one example of a valid answer most people seem to be up in arms about. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.181|162.158.41.181]] 01:06, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

:All right, all right. I yield. That’s some... _impressive_ reasoning. If we are going to redefine words to meaninglessness then there is no hope of engaging in useful discussion. I’m sure Randall will at least get a good laugh out of the idea that post-grad math students would submit “infinity” as the largest number they could think of. I still think it a disservice to readers to posit infinity as a _valid_ answer, though. [[User:Dúthomhas|Dúthomhas]] ([[User talk:Dúthomhas|talk]]) 05:05, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

Y'all, the answer is clearly 1. Sincerely, someone who has studied probability.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.137.155|162.158.137.155]] 14:04, 1 August 2024 (UTC)

No actual cosmologist denotes the Hubble constant in Hz. It's about 70 (km/s)/Mpc. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.22|162.158.41.22]] 04:23, 2 August 2024 (UTC)

2963: House Inputs and Outputs

2024-07-25T05:32:04Z

162.158.41.22:

{{comic
| number = 2963
| date = July 24, 2024
| title = House Inputs and Outputs
| image = house_inputs_and_outputs_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x684px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = People think power over ethernet is so great, and yet when I try to do water over ethernet everyone yells at me.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a bot stuck in the well - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is another comic in the series of comics that use a {{w|confusion matrix}}, similar to [[2420: Appliances]], [[2813: What To Do]] and [[1890: What to Bring]].

{| class="wikitable"
|+ {{Citation needed}}
|-
! !! Well !! Garage !! Power lines !! Front door !! Septic tank
|-
| Fresh water (Input) || The purpose of a well is usually to pump fresh water into the home, primarily for drinking or washing. || ... || Water either shouldn't, or cannot be carried through electrical lines. || Many people prefer to control the amount of water they get, and the water may damage things inside the house. || Most people don't want anything they drink to contain(or go through pipes that have contained) sewage.
|-
| Cars (Input/Output) || Most cars manufactured in recent years can't fit inside a well. || Garages are in fact built for the storage of cars and other similarly-sized vehicles. Placing a car in one will both help protect it from the elements and make it easier to access from inside your own home. || As of yet, cars cannot be transferred through power lines and require roads to travel on. However, this could significantly reduce travel costs. || ... || ...
|-
| Electricity (Input) || ... || ... || Power lines are designed to facilitate the connection of individual homes to the broader local power network. || A majority of people prefer their house to be solid and not made of ash. || ...
|-
| People (Input/Output) || This panel is not a black hole, and is instead from the view of someone inside the well. Being inside a well is obviously not an ideal situation to be in{{Citation needed}}. || Though not outright designed for it, a person can enter and exit their home through the garage door just fine, provided the garage has an internal door to the rest of the home. Not the best way to welcome guests though. || ... || The front door of a home is designed for entry and exit of humans and similarly sized items. || In general, people find crawling through waste unwanted. Also, the septic tank is not connected to the street.
|-
| Sewage (Output) || Sewage in drinking water can cause disease. || ... || ... || ... || The purpose of a septic tank is to transport sewage from the home where it is processed elsewhere, usually to a sewage treatment plant.
|}

The title text references {{w|Power over Ethernet|Power over ethernet}}, first implemented in the early 2000s, which passed electric power along with data on twisted-pair Ethernet cabling. This was a welcome development, as it removed the need for many network-connected devices to have independent power supplies. While networked water delivery ("running water") is also a welcome development, doing so over ethernet cables would be an unmitigated disaster, and Randall would get off easy if he were merely to be yelled at.

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

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]

2957: A Crossword Puzzle

2024-07-11T19:05:03Z

162.158.41.22: typo

{{comic
| number = 2957
| date = July 10, 2024
| title = A Crossword Puzzle
| image = a_crossword_puzzle_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x937px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hint: If you ever encounter this puzzle in a crossword app, just [term for someone with a competitive and high-achieving personality].
}}

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

{{notice|<big>'''SPOILER ALERT!'''</big> If you read on without trying to look at the crossword clues first, the joke is spoiled and your chance of finding out the joke yourself is gone instantly!|image=warning!!.png}}

This is a crossword puzzle. On a surface level, the answers seem extremely difficult, with questions covering a wide variety of trivia, linguistics, mathematics in various forms, alongside wordplay typical of crossword puzzles. But the joke is that every single letter of every single answer is "A".

The name of this comic, “A Crossword Puzzle”, is a double entendre; the “A” can be interpreted both as the indefinite article “a”, and as an identifier saying that this crossword puzzle is specifically an “A” puzzle, due to the answer being all “a”s.

The title text is a play on a "type A" personality. The term for someone with a competitive and high-achieving personality is "Type A". In the context of the title text, this answer is a hint that the entire puzzle can be completed in a crossword-solving app by typing the letter A repeatedly.

==Explanation of clues==
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Location !! Clue !! Explanation !! Squares
|-
| 1-Across || Famous Pvt. Wilhelm quote || Reference to the {{w|Wilhelm scream}}. || 10
|-
| 11-Across || {{w|IPv6}} address record || An IPv4 record is an "A" record; an IPv6 record is four times the length and is designated an "AAAA" record. || 4
|-
| 15-Across || “CIPHERTEXT” decrypted with Vigenère key “CIPHERTEXT” || A "{{w|Vigenère Cipher}}" translates the original text by the distance from A from the key, letter by letter. For instance, if the plaintext is "XK" and the key is "CD", the C shifts X 2 forward to become Z, and the D shifts K 3 forward to become N, yielding a ciphertext of "ZN". Since the ciphertext and the key are the same in this case, decryption just shifts all the letters back to A, akin to subtracting a number from itself and getting 0. || 10
|-
| 16-Across || 8mm diameter battery || An {{w|AAAA battery}} is a 1.5V battery that measures 8.3 mm in diameter, 2.2 mm smaller than the more common AAA battery. || 4
|-
| 17-Across || “Warthog” attack aircraft || The {{w|A-10 Warthog}} is an attack aircraft. Here, A-10 has been turned into AAAAAAAAAA (ten As). || 10
|-
| 18-Across || '''E'''ve'''r'''y t'''h'''ir'''d''' le'''t'''te'''r''' in the word for “inability to visualize” || {{w|Aphantasia}} is the inability to experience mental images. Following the example of the pattern in the clue, taking the first letter and every third one after (rather than just every third letter) we determine that '''A'''ph'''a'''nt'''a'''si'''a''' gives us the word "aaaa". This clue is particularly mean because of how it instructs you to visualize the letters highlighted within the word in order to get the answer. || 4
|-
| 19-Across || An {{w|acrostic}} hidden on the first page of the dictionary || The first page of the dictionary (if you ignore the copyright page and the index) is the list of words starting with A. An acrostic of this page, taking the first letter of each line and arranging them in order, would just be a sequence of As. || 10
|-
| 21-Across || Default paper size in Europe || {{w|A4 paper}} (here written as AAAA) is the default size in Europe. At 210x297 mm, it is approximately 0.24" narrower and 0.71" longer than the 8.5"x11" paper used in the United States, and due to having an aspect ratio of 1:sqrt(2), can be cut in half to create two half-sized sheets with exactly the same aspect ratio. || 4
|-
| 22-Across || First four unary strings || A unary number system represents numbers using just one symbol. E.g. 32 in unary would be 11111111111111111111111111111111. The first four strings in unary, if you used A as the first (and only) symbol, would be A, AA, AAA, AAAA. || 10
|-
| 23-Across || Lysine codon || {{w|Lysine}} is an amino acid, with codons AAA and AAG. || 3
|-
| 24-Across || 40 CFR Part 63 subpart concerning asphalt pollution || [https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-40/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-63?toc=1 "40 CFR Part 63"] refers to federal air pollutant regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations. The subpart for "asphalt processing and asphalt roofing manufacturing" is AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 25-Across || Top bond credit rating || The highest {{w|credit rating}} for bonds is AAA. || 3
|-
| 26-Across || Audi coupe || First of three Audi references. {{w|List_of_Audi_vehicles|Audi's car models}} range from A1 (subcompact hatchback) to A8 (full-size luxury sedan); the A5 is a compact executive coupé. || 5
|-
| 27-Across || A pair of small remote batteries, when inserted || Two {{w|AAA_battery|AAA}} batteries, which are often used to power remote controls for domestic devices. These have been combined to give AAAAAA — "Inserted" is often a cryptic hint that one word should surround another, although such a cryptic clue would normally also contain a more direct clue (albeit ambiguously) to the full answer. || 6
|-
| 29-Across || Unofficial Howard Dean slogan || A reference to Howard Dean, an American Democrat who ran for the party's nomination in 2004. He famously [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6i-gYRAwM0 yelled at a rally] in a way that was thought to be bizarre and which, it is thought, doomed his campaign. || 7
|-
| 32-Across || A 4.0 report card || A 4.0 GPA, at least {{w|Academic_grading_in_the_United_States|in the USA}}, is all As. This clue assumes seven classes. || 7
|-
| 33-Across || The “Harlem Globetrotters of baseball” (vowels only) || The {{w|Savannah Bananas}}, the vowels for whom are aaaaaa. || 6
|-
| 34-Across || 2018 Kiefer song || [https://genius.com/Kiefer-aaaaa-lyrics AAAAA]. || 5
|-
| 35-Across || Top Minor League tier || The top {{w|Minor League Baseball}} tier is AAA. || 3
|-
| 36-Across || Reply elicited by a dentist || Dentists ask patients to "say aaaaaaa", i.e. "open up". This could also be an expression of pain; particularly the only kind you can make with dental tools in your mouth. (As Autechre put it: [https://youtu.be/UppsLKz1iD4 "Now, I don't want you to panic... just lean back and relax."]) || 7
|-
| 38-Across || Anaa’s airport || {{w|Anaa}} is an atoll in the {{w|Tuamotu archipelago}} of {{w|French Polynesia}}. AAA is the {{w|IATA}} code for the airport there. || 3
|-
| 41-Across || Macaulay Culkin’s review of aftershave || In the movie {{w|Home Alone}}, Kevin (played by Macaulay Culkin) puts on his father's aftershave lotion. The six-year-old boy is not used to the lotion's antiseptic and screams as the stinging sensation kicks in. || 10
|-
| 43-Across || Marketing agency trade grp. || The {{w|American Association of Advertising Agencies}}, also called the 4As (here AAAA). || 4
|-
| 44-Across || Soaring climax of Linda Eder’s ''Man of La Mancha'' || Refers to [https://youtu.be/BWP7l0OTXJI?t=130 the 20 second long wordless passage in Eder's opus], or possibly the final high note in the song The Impossible Dream. || 10
|-
| 46-Across || Military flight community org. || The {{w|Army Aviation Association of America}}, or AAAA. || 4
|-
| 47-Across || Iconic line from ''Tarzan'' || Tarzan has a famous {{w|Tarzan yell|war cry}} he shouts, usually when swinging from a vine. || 10
|-
| 48-Across || '''E'''v'''e'''r'''y''' o'''t'''h'''e'''r letter of Jimmy Wales’s birth state || The birth state of {{w|Jimmy Wales}}, the co-founder of Wikipedia, is Alabama. Taking every other letter of '''A'''l'''a'''b'''a'''m'''a''' gives "Aaaa". || 4
|-
| 49-Across || Warthog’s postscript after “They call me ''mister'' pig!” || Pumba in {{w|The Lion King}} yells "aaaaaaaaaa" while charging at the hyenas who insulted him. || 10
|-
| 50-Across || Message to Elsa in ''Frozen 2'' || The call which Elsa hears in {{w|Frozen 2}} is a sequence of four notes which resemble the requiem music {{w|Dies Irae#Music|Dies irae}}. The sequence is sung entirely with an open rounded vowel sound, or a soft "a" sound. || 4
|-
| 51-Across || Lola, when betting it all on Black 20 in ''Run Lola Run'' || In ''{{w|Run Lola Run}}'', Lola (Franka Potente) [https://youtu.be/OTSz1w-cuZM?si=2vc51WCWvn20Hjoo&t=116 screams loud enough to affect the outcome] of a roulette wheel where she has just bet all her money on Black 20. The scream could be transcribed as "AAAAAAAAAAA" || 10
|-
| 1-Down || Game featuring “a reckless disregard for gravity” || {{w|AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity}} - notably the title is commonly extended in promotional material beyond 6 As. || 6
|-
| 2-Down || 1010101010101010101010102→16 || 10101010 10101010 10101010 in binary is equivalent to "AAAAAA" in hexadecimal. || 6
|-
| 3-Down || Google phone released July ’22 || The {{w|Pixel 6a}} was released in July 22. Stylized in this puzzle as "AAAAAA" ('A'*6) || 6
|-
| 4-Down || It’s five times better than that ''other'' steak sauce || 5 times better than {{w|A1 steak sauce}} would be A5, stylized in this puzzle as "AAAAA". || 5
|-
| 5-Down || ToHex(43690) || The decimal number 43690 converted to hexadecimal is AAAA. || 4
|-
| 6-Down || Freddie Mercury lyric from ''Under Pressure'' || A drawn-out 'Aaaaahhhh' rising in pitch. || 15
|-
| 7-Down || Full-size Audi luxury sedan || Second of three Audi references. As mentioned previously, the A8 is their full-size luxury sedan. || 8
|-
| 8-Down || Fast path through a multiple choice marketing survey || The "fast path" is just to select the first option over and over again. Usually the options are labeled A, B, C, and D (or more) - choosing the first option for every question would be answering entirely with As. || 7
|-
| 9-Down || 12356631 in base 26 || Randall is expressing base 26 using the letters of the alphabet with 1=A, in which case 1235663110 = AAAAAA26. (It's unclear how one would express the digit 026 this way.) || 6
|-
| 10-Down || Viral Jimmy Barnes chorus || A reference to the music video for Kirin J Callinan's song '{{w|Big Enough}}', which features Jimmy Barnes in a cowboy hat screaming "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" while in the sky over mountain scenes. || 15
|-
| 11-Down || Ruby Rhod catchphrase || Ruby Rhod is a radio host in the film '{{w|The Fifth Element}}'; he has a scene with a memorable scream. || 5
|-
| 12-Down || badbeef + 9efcebbb || In hexadecimal, badbeef and 9efcebbb add together to equal AAAAAAAA (195,935,983, 2,667,375,547, and 2,863,311,530 in decimal respectively). || 8
|-
| 13-Down || In Wet Leg’s ''Ur Mum'', what the singer has been practicing || In the song "{{w|Ur Mum}}" by Wet Leg, the bridge starts with "Okay, I've been practicing my longest and loudest scream", which is apparently eight As long. || 8
|-
| 14-Down || Refrain from Nora Reed bot || The "Endless Scream" bot on social media, made by Nora Reed, posts "AAAAAAAAAAA" (with or without an h) at varying lengths. || 8
|-
| 20-Down || Mario button presses to ascend Minas Tirith’s walls || {{w|Minas Tirith}}. In Mario games you typically use the A button to jump. In games where you don't press a button to move (e.g. games with a joystick) then the button presses required to ascend a vertical structure would probably all be A. This clue might have been inspired by the {{w|A-button challenge}} / [https://ukikipedia.net/wiki/A_Button_Challenge A Button Challenge], which tallies the amount of A presses needed to beat ''Super Mario 64''. Additionally, Minas Tirith is a city with seven concentric rings, each with a wall around it and higher than the last ring. Presumably, it takes seven jumps to get to the highest area of the city, so the answer is "AAAAAAA". || 7
|-
| 24-Down || Vermont historic route north from Bennington || {{w|Vermont Route 7A}}, or AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 26-Down || High-budget video game || A high-budget video game is usually referred to as a Triple-A game, or AAA. || 3
|-
| 28-Down || Unorthodox Tic-Tac-Toe win || Tic-Tac-Toe is usually won by getting either three Xs or three Os in a row, making XXX and OOO normal Tic-Tac-Toe wins. One could achieve a win of AAA by making the unorthodox choice of playing with the letter A instead of X or O. Alternatively, Randall is envisaging the grid as defined by rows 1, 2, 3, and columns A, B, C, so an AAA win would be simply playing in the first column each time - a strategy which should be obvious and easy to stop, even for young children who have not yet worked out that ''any'' route to winning can be blocked. || 3
|-
| 29-Down || String whose SHA-256 hash ends “…689510285e212385” || <code>printf AAAAAAAA <nowiki>|</nowiki> sha256sum</code> outputs <code>c34ab6abb7b2bb595bc25c3b388c872fd1d575819a8f55cc689510285e212385</code>.
Note that this 'clue' would be normally be ''particularly'' difficult, in isolation, as the nature of a {{w|hash function}} means that it is possible for multiple inputs to produce a given output, and that finding any of these (and definitely identifying ''all'' of them, to ensure you have the correct original) would require a {{w|brute-force attack}}; i.e. a test of all possible initial states to discover which of them might be viable candidates. Even more problematic is that we are only given a partial hash string, meaning we are possibly talking of a multiple of full hashes, each of them with a possible multiplicity of original plaintexts behind them.
 The number of possible hashes in the clue is 1664/1616, i.e. 1648, or approximately 6x1054, although there really is no reason (aside from the fundamental impracticality) to try to solve this problem from each and every 'hash end'. Instead you would 'only' check every combination of 8 letters (presuming no digits, punctuation or whitespace would be inserted, that no 'foreign'/accented characters are present and that uppercase is universally presumed, is 268; i.e. ~208 {{w|billion|short-scale billion}} possibilities) and discover which (one?) of these sufficiently matches the hash fragment given. Testing a hundred of these every second, it would take a little over 66 ''years'' to complete the task of checking every single possibility (rather than stopping at the first confirmed answer, which might well be the initial one in this particular case).
 In the context of a crossword such as this, however, you can significantly reduce this search by having established (or at least sufficiently narrowed down) the answers to the various across-clues which intersect with ever character of it (this form of crossword grid being of the {{w|Crossword#American-style crosswords|dense type}}, with no singly-clued spaces as with the more open lattice-types), reducing the necessary checks drastically. This could mean, having solved at least some of the perpendicular answers, that you have enough information to 'guess' at some likely answer, and then merely need to ''confirm'' that whatever guess(es) you make will resolve themselves into the clue-answer provided. (Much as you might with a more normally difficult clue, where you merely have to satisfy yourself that the surprise answer is at least justified as resulting from the original hint.)
| 8
|-
| 30-Down || Arnold’s remark to the Predator || A reference to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFYPVxHKdc this scene] from '{{w|Predator (film)|Predator}}'. || 8
|-
| 31-Down || The vowels in the fire salamander’s binomial name || The vowels in {{w|Salamandra salamandra}} are aaaaaaaa. || 8
|-
| 32-Down || Janet Leigh ''Psycho'' line || The iconic scene in {{w|Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho}} is the shower scene, in which Janet Leigh gives a long piercing scream as she is murdered, which can be written as 8 As if one wishes. || 8
|-
| 34-Down || Seven 440Hz pulses || A sound with a frequency of 440 Hz is a middle "A" note. Seven such pulses would be AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 37-Down || Audi luxury sports sedan || Third of three Audi references. The A6 is their executive car. Actually, the A7, their executive liftback sedan, would fit the prompt of "luxury sports sedan" better, but 37 Down only has room for six As. || 6
|-
| 38-Down || A half-dozen eggs with reasonably firm yolks || Eggs can be [https://www.saudereggs.com/blog/egg-grading-system/ "graded on a variety of aspects"], with grades B, A, or AA. Eggs with a reasonably firm yolk are graded A, so having half a dozen of them gives you AAAAAA eggs. || 6
|-
| 39-Down || 2-2-2-2-2-2 on a multitap phone keypad || A "{{w|multi-tap|multitap keyboard}}" is a text entry system for mobile phones. Most numbers are associated with three letters, and tapping the same number multiple times in rapid succession selects the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd number. 2 is "a", 22 is "b", 222 is "c", 3 is "d", etc. 2-2-2-2-2-2 translates to "aaaaaa". || 6
|-
| 40-Down || .- .- .- .- .- .- || .- is Morse Code for A. It reads out as AAAAAA. || 6
|-
| 42-Down || Rating for China’s best tourist attractions || China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism provides ratings for many tourist attractions in China on a scale from A to AAAAA, with AAAAA being the best. Examples of well-known tourist attractions with the AAAAA rating include the Forbidden City, sections of the Great Wall of China, and the Terracotta Army. || 5
|-
| 43-Down || Standard drumstick size || 5A is a common, middle-range size for drumsticks (the sticks used to play drums, not the drumsticks that get eaten). Here, it's written as AAAAA. || 5
|-
| 45-Down || “The rain/in Spain/falls main-/ly on the plain” rhyme scheme || An AAAA rhyme scheme means each of the four lines ends with the same sound. || 4
|}

==Transcript==
:[A square 15x15 crossword puzzle is shown. Only 21 of the 225 squares are black. The black squares are in a pattern that are 180 degree rotationally symmetrical. Three black squares down from the 11th column and similarly three black squares up from the 5th column. Three black squares out from the right in row 7 and then two more black squares diagonally up from the end. Similarly three black squares out from the left in row 9 with two more black squares diagonally down from the end. A single black square is three above the first black square on the diagonal going down to the right and similarly there is a black square three under the first of the diagonal squares going down to the left. (Row 6 column 12 and Row 10 column 4). Finally there are three black squares on a diagonal crossing over the central point by going up from the left through the central point (Row 8 column 8). There are numbers at the top of every column (except the one that is a black square) and similarly at the left edge of all rows (except the one that is a black square). There are also numbers at the bottom of every black segment (except the one that reaches the bottom) and all rows after black segments except the one that reaches the right edge. In total all numbers from 1 to 51 is written. They are written in reading order from 1 to 51.]
:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

:[Below the square there are two rows of clues for each number that belongs to across (rows) and to the right there are one row of clues for each number that belongs to down (columns). Both segments have an underlined and bold title above the clues. ]
:<big>'''Across'''</big>
:1. Famous Pvt. Wilhelm quote
:11. IPv6 address record
:15. "CIPHERTEXT" decrypted with Vigenère key "CIPHERTEXT"
:16. 8mm diameter battery
:17. "Warthog" attack aircraft
:18. '''E'''ve'''r'''y t'''h'''ir'''d''' le'''t'''te'''r''' in the word for "inability to visualize"
:19. An acrostic hidden on the first page of the dictionary
:21. Default paper size in Europe
:22. First four unary strings
:23. Lysine codon
:24. 40 CFR Part 63 subpart concerning asphalt pollution
:25. Top bond credit rating
:26. Audi coupe
:27. A pair of small remote batteries, when inserted
:29. Unofficial Howard Dean slogan
:32. A 4.0 report card
:33. The "Harlem Globetrotters of baseball" (vowels only)
:34. 2018 Kiefer song
:35. Top Minor League tier
:36. Reply elicited by a dentist
:38. ANAA's airport
:41. Macaulay Culkin's review of aftershave
:43. Marketing agency trade grp.
:44. Soaring climax of Linda Eder's ''Man of La Mancha''
:46. Military flight community org.
:47. Iconic line from ''Tarzan''
:48. '''E''''''v''''''e''''''r''''''y'''''' o''''''t''''''h''''''e''''''r''' letter of Jimmy Wales's birth state
:49. Warthog's postscript after "They call me ''mister'' pig!"
:50. Message to Elsa in ''Frozen 2''
:51. Lola, when betting it all on Black 20 in ''Run Lola Run''

:<big>'''Down'''</big>
:1. Game featuring "a reckless disregard for gravity"
:2. 1010101010101010101010102→16
:3. Google phone released July '22
:4. It's five times better than that ''other'' steak sauce
:5. ToHex(43690)
:6. Freddie Mercury lyric from ''Under Pressure''
:7. Full-size Audi luxury sedan
:8. Fast path through a multiple choice marketing survey
:9. 12356631 in base 26
:10. Viral Jimmy Barnes chorus
:11. Ruby Rhod catchphrase
:12. badbeef + 9efcebbb
:13. In Wet Leg's ''Ur Mum'', what the singer has been practicing
:14. Refrain from Nora Reed bot
:20. Mario button presses to ascend Minas Tirith's walls
:24. Vermont historic route north from Bennington
:26. High-budget video game
:28. Unorthodox Tic-Tac-Toe win
:29. String whose SHA-256 hash ends "...689510285e212385"
:30. Arnold's remark to the Predator
:31. The vowels in the fire salamander's binomial name
:32. Janet Leigh ''Psycho'' line
:34. Seven 440Hz pulses
:37. Audi luxury sports sedan
:38. A half-dozen eggs with reasonably firm yolks
:39. 2-2-2-2-2-2 on a multitap phone keypad
:40. .- .- .- .- .- .-
:42. Rating for China's best tourist attractions
:43. Standard drumstick size
:45. "The rain/in Spain/falls main-/ly on the plain" rhyme scheme

==Trivia==
*This comic got a [[Header_text#A_Crossword_Puzzle|comic-specific header text]] after the first day it was up.
**This was because one of the comics Randall lists as one of those he enjoys, [https://www.buttersafe.com/ Buttersafe], had already posted a similar comic back in 2011: [https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ Crosswords].
**Randall had forgotten this, but now pays tribute to this, stating that he must have been accidentally inspired by that comic.
*[[User:Elfakyn|Elfakyn]] posted a link to a picture of the solved crossword puzzle in the [[Talk:2957:_A_Crossword_Puzzle#Solved_puzzle_picture|coments]] and allowed it to be included here:
[[File:2957_A-Crossword_Puzzle-Solved.png]]
*All the black squares are in a symmetrical pattern, which is generally the case for crossword puzzles in the US and UK. See description of the pattern in the [[#Transcript|transcript]].
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Language]]

Talk:2945: Broken Model

2024-06-14T19:09:19Z

162.158.41.22: reply

If only Randall had included a cabbage somewhere... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.241|172.68.64.241]] 05:03, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
:He included grass... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:50, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
:The cabbage would consume nothing & nothing would consume the cabbage; it's a null value, so the mathematician left it out.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:55, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

This "terrifying alternate universe" thing goes all the way back to the 5th century before the Common Era:

The lion shall lie down with the lamb, and they shall eat grass.
Alas for the lion! He cannot eat grass, he shall be no more, unless he become a lamb.
Alas for the grass! There are too many lambs, it cannot grow, it shall be no more, unless it become thorns.
Alas for the lambs! They cannot eat thorns, they shall be no more, unless they eat each other -
yea, unless some become lions, and they eat enough lambs so that the grass may grow again.

Ergo, Heaven is Hell. QED. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.177|172.68.22.177]] 06:09, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
:Yep predators are important, but only if they are the 20 and the prey are the 400. Else it is extermination for the prey. And if the predators only eat those kinds of animals also the end for them. Luckily the rabbits could eat grass. But what should the grass eat now there are no more foxes? ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:50, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

I wonder if the term ''hell'' is a reference to the paper [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24310043_A_slow_life_in_hell_or_a_fast_life_in_heaven_Demographic_analyses_of_contrasting_roe_deer_populations A slow life in hell or a fast life in heaven: Demographic analyses of contrasting roe deer populations] (2009). I couldn't find any earlier mention in this context. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.130.199|172.71.130.199]] 07:51, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
:It's probably a reference to the realm mentioned in most religions where eternal punishment is dished out to uncool individuals based on their bad deeds. "Hell" is the reference here, not an article on deer populations, lol. [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 17:58, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

Anyone else with a sudden urge of writing a Zootopia fanfic ("No, Judy, NOOOOO!")? (Oh yes, the relevant pic exists. This is teh Internet.) [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.174|198.41.242.174]] 08:44, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

That last paragraph is completely incomprehensible at time of writing. --[[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 11:37, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

Apparently, AI doesn't have a problem with redundant content - for example, the double mention of "Fox Hell" in the Title Text with two separate paragraphs. The AI generator also seems intent on commenting excessively on typical xkcd humor patterns. I feel like some of this extra AI content needs to be trimmed down just a bit, as it doesn't add value and just makes it look like a school essay instead of a human-readable explanation. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 16:44, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
:Agreed.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:58, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

It's rather obvious LLM was used here, especially the part where it only mentions the teacher saying "If this were an ecology class, I would have to fix that." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.146.32|162.158.146.32]]

Are AI-generated additions to the explanations allowed here? I immediately came here after reading the "explanation" and noticing how redundant and inaccurate it was and was hoping it would be removed. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.217|162.158.62.217]] 22:07, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

:I don't believe anyone has ever come out and said "don't use AI-generated text in explanations" at this point, but I'm finding it annoying that at least one person feels the need to do it. I find it disruptive to some degree, as it probably takes almost as much work to clean up the extra garbage included as it would to write the explanations from scratch. I fear it may discourage editors from contributing to explanations when they end up just cleaning up someone's AI additions. Just my 2 cents worth. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 22:48, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

::I think it's a net positive because cleaning up an AI explanation takes less time than writing one from scratch. I do think we should have a rule that AI explanations need to be marked as such in the edit summary, which was done in this case. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.22|162.158.41.22]] 19:09, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

== Carnivorous grass? ==

I feel like this grass exists, even though I've never seen it named. Looks like grass, but puts out thorns tough enough to penetrate bike tires, & can sometimes be found as a patch growing extra thick around a snared animal carcass?
: A quick search suggests that "carnivorous grass" with features like this is a trope in world-building games. However, you may be thinking of this {{w|Puya chilensis|real-world South American bromeliad}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.128|172.71.150.128]] 17:45, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
::Naw, this literally just looks like grass, until it seeds, & then the seeds are these horrific burrs. I don't think the plant is specifically carnivorous, though. I just know the burrs can injure, smallish critters can get snagged in stands of it, & I've taken to calling it "hell grass" because I imagine hell would have huge tracts of suburban lawns full of the impassable stuff. Re: carnivorous, almost any plant seems to like some carcass mixed into its soil now & then? So, I go more by how deadly they seem to be... & I mentioned this stuff mostly because I don't know what to call it & so have been calling it Hell Grass. WTF is this impostor-grass?
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 22:43, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
::: Got it. Sounds like one of the 107 species in the genus {{w|Cenchrus|Cenchrus}}, which is a bona fide member of the grass family (Poaceae). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.53|172.71.146.53]] 23:58, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
::::That's it! The hell-grass cenchrus longispinus, grows all over southern NewMexico, & [http://jimbotany.com/Monastery_Plants/Cenchrus%20longispinus--aka%20Cenchrus%20pauciflorus%20%202011-08-08.jpg it's primary thorns get a ''lot'' longer & stouter than shown in most photos]. Awful stuff; snares small beasts, makes dogs cry & cats angry, & it creeps in flat to the ground right through friendlier grasses. Even a few strands deploying seeds one year, can turn a lovely lawn into a lie.
::::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 18:11, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

Couldn't fungi be classified as carnivorous "grass"? [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 18:00, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
: I would say it would be stretch considering fungi is neither grass nor carnivorous. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 21:34, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
::I mean, it can "chew" (decompose) stuff by growing on it. Aren't fungi plants? What does their gene tree look like? [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 21:38, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
:::Fungi were originally in the plant kingdom, but they're actually more closely related to animals than plants. In 2007 the Fungi kingdom was created for them. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:23, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
:::: Actually, Fungi were first recognized as a lineage at the "kingdom" level by {{w|Robert_Whittaker_(ecologist)|Robert Whittaker}} in 1969. Recognition that Fungi and Animalia are sister lineages came later. Remember that old line about how your boss must think you're a mushroom, 'cause dey keeps you in the dark and feeds you bullmanure? Your boss may have had more of a clue than you thought. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.53|172.71.146.53]] 23:58, 13 June 2024 (UTC)
:::::Today I learned. [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 12:47, 14 June 2024 (UTC)
Uhhhh the explanation is wrong saying that the 400 rabbits will drive the foxes extinct. This is one of the unphysical parts of the lotka volterra equations actually, no matter what the start values are, if they are non zero they will remain nonzero forever. (This is called the atto fox problem)[[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.83|172.70.211.83]] 17:07, 14 June 2024 (UTC)