explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2447: Hammer Incident

2021-04-08T10:55:32Z

162.158.88.212: /* Explanation */ small typo fix.

{{comic
| number = 2447
| date = April 7, 2021
| title = Hammer Incident
| image = hammer incident normal.png
| titletext = I still think the Cold Stone Creamery partnership was a good idea, but I should have asked before doing the first market trials during the cryogenic mirror tests.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by AAAHHH THE IMAGE WAS TOO BIG! Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The {{w|James Webb Space Telescope}} (JWST) is a {{w|space telescope}} created to be the successor of the {{w|Hubble Space Telescope}} under construction at time of publishing and expected to launch in October 2021.

It's implied that Cueball dropped a hammer on the mirror of the JWST, and breaking mirrors in superstition causes seven years of bad luck. But since the mirror panel are not glass it is likely that a dropped hammer would dent and distort the panel rather than shatter it.

The title text refers to the ice cream chain {{w|Cold Stone Creamery}}. Since the cryocooler of the JWST cools things down to 7K (-266.15°C, or -447.07°F), it would be a bit of an overkill.

The JWST has previously been mentioned in [[2014: JWST Delays]], [[1730: Starshade]], and [[1461: Payloads]]

For some reason, the image for this comic is very large (4332×4838px). This is probably a mistake, as the double-resolution version [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/hammer_incident_2x.png] is significantly smaller at 578×645px.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Cueball stands before a seated panel of four people (Ponytail, Hairy, a second Cueball and Hairbun).]
:Cueball: Yes, I know you're mad that I dropped that hammer.
:Cueball: But think about me—
:Cueball: '''''Seven years of bad luck!'''''
:[Caption below the panel]:
:Man, NASA is really on my case about the James Webb Space Telescope.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Telescopes]]

Talk:503: Terminology

2018-04-18T10:36:15Z

162.158.88.212:

Well, sitting in Europe, the East is in fact east and the West is in fact west of me. It's just a term made from an European point of view and has settled over time. The main problem is that east and west should be used as relative directions but are used absolute. (Contrary to north and south which can also be used absolute). --[[Special:Contributions/83.243.48.2|83.243.48.2]] 12:18, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
:I'm still accustomed to the use of the Pacific Ocean as the geographical split, centralising the Atlantic Ocean. However, since the UTC boundary sits east of the Atlantic, perhaps the East and West hemispheres should be reversed to match.

:Do we have enough dumptrucks to handle this formidable task? [[User:Thokling|Thokling]] ([[User talk:Thokling|talk]]) 08:35, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

:: So what? The {{w|International Date Line}} sits within the Pacific. Also, for the reasons mentioned above (east and west being relative), I would refrain from using the terms eastern and western hemisphere. --[[User:SlashMe|SlashMe]] ([[User talk:SlashMe|talk]]) 14:17, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

:It's not only point of VIEW. Our civilization is based in Europe. Europeans first discovered and then conquered rest of world (doesn't matter if the people already living there wanted to be discovered or not). "West" is what was discovered when sailing to west from Europe, "east" is what was discovered when sailing to east. Americans (especially citizens of USA) sometimes forget they are (mostly) NOT native of America, but immigrants from Europe.

:Also, in Europe itself, the division between "east" and "west" was set at end of world war II, at {{w|Potsdam Conference}}, and I'm sure noone cared for geography there. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 12:13, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

::Actually, I think that by now most people in America are natives. It has been several generations since the discovery of the Americas by the Europeans, so even though they are descendants of Europeans most current inhabitants of the Americas were born there in the Americas. Being born there is what makes you native to it, otherwise there would be no native Americans at all, since the inhabitants of the Americas can be roughly divided into, in reverse chronological order of inhabitance, descendants of Africans, Europeans and Asians (that is, descendants of Asians were the first to inhabit America). [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 02:35, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

;Where is "X"

The map seems to be using the either the [[wikipedia:Gall stereographic projection|Gall stereographic projection]] or the [[wikipedia:Mercator projection|Mercator projection]], which is also used by Google Maps. However, the drawing does not match up with the standard projection used by Google Maps -- Better people may be able to find a projection which more closely align with the drawing.

[[File:GoogleMapsOverlay503.png]]

Moved from explain page. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:39, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

Well, Randall did say in his What If? book that he did grow up in Virginia (the "flyover state" section of the book), so maybe he still lived around that point in 2008. And according to the X, my fact is correct. From what I can see. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 16:33, 14 September 2016 (UTC)

I live in New Zealand and have been to japan so I can confirm that they are indeed different countries {{unsigned ip|162.158.176.47}}

:How can you be sure that New Zealand did not just move very fast while you were on plane? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.238.70|162.158.238.70]] 11:05, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Well, as a European this has bothered me as well. After all, the American East coast is to the West of us... while the West coast is far closer to China than to Europe (i.e. far closer to the East than to the West). I tend to confuse the two a lot... As a compromise, I suggest calling all three coasts the East/West coast to resolve any and all confusion and ambiguity. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.212|162.158.88.212]] 10:36, 18 April 2018 (UTC)

Talk:1796: Focus Knob

2017-02-09T16:41:36Z

162.158.88.212:

Too much existential paralysis can often lead to fiddling with email. Less frequently, too much time spent fiddling with email can lead to those existential crises. The knob can turn all the way around - there aren't stoppers on either side of the rotation...
--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.124|162.158.255.124]] 14:20, 8 February 2017 (UTC)kb
:Well since the two ticks at the end points are larger than the other 35 I would say that it cannot go past these. That would make sense and is also like on several knobs I have seen. This is also like the speedometer in my car, which does not shown anything below 0 or above 240 km/h... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:05, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Maybe Randall is implying that he has issues with keeping the big picture in mind while doing detail work and gets lost in the details of implementation and vice versa.
This means that for him the knob is more of an on/off or selection switch. Pulse Width Modulation would then allow him to use this on/off switch more like the knob in the picture shown. (... or whoevers voice Randall is speaking in as many people probably have issues with this, myself included.)
I wonder if he obsessed over how to implement this comic:
1. As an on/off switch?
2. As a knob with limited none-usefull settings with "ideal" labeled between the actual settings available?
3. Like this, for simplicity, keeping the big picture in mind and not obsessing over the details of how it may under some circumstances be viewed?
--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.91.95|162.158.91.95]] 10:19, 8 February 2017 (UTC)cdm
:Since the knob clearly is set at the 13th tick he does not use it as an on/off which invalidates most of the arguments in this comment. But since he goes in e-mail mode left of the healthy balance and in panic to the right there is some kind of on/off behavior. But still he can focus more an more on the big picture even though he stays with his settings, until he goes past tick 25. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:05, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

If the knob only has discrete positions, none of which lies within the balanced region, he could use PWM to simulate that position.
Let's say the focus variable goes from 0 to 10, the knob can only stay on integer values and the "sweet spot" is around 7,38.
He can make a cycle that rests on 7 62% of the time and at 8 38% of the time, and repeat this cycle with a high enough frequency so that his mind wouldn't know the difference from actually being at
the knob's focused on the approximate mirror location of the "healthy balance" section.
I don't really have anything to suggest based on that though :/
[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.82|108.162.241.82]] 12:55, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
:IMHO it's just a visual thing to balance the whole image. If you search for watch ads on google images, you'll see that the analogical ones pretty much always show an hour close to 10:10. Beside being balanced, I think those positions are chosen to look "random" (which is paradoxical), or "without a specific meaning", when a 0°, 45° or 90° would seem to have been chosen on purpose. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.88.184|141.101.88.184]] 13:19, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
::IMHO Randall has placed it there on purpose a long way from looking at the big picture because he do not wish a panic attack by reading the news on Trump. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:05, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

I noticed 2 things that are not already mentioned: 1) The dial is currently set to somewhere along the left side, which suggests that Randall is overly detail‐oriented. 2) Randall misspelled existential as existental. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.196|108.162.245.196]] 16:55, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
:An "existental" crisis is what happens when you are so focused on the big picture you forget details like how to spell "existential."[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.11|108.162.238.11]] 18:40, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
::I have added explanation on where and why the knob is turned to tick 13, and also a trivia about the spell error, and thanks, I had corrected it in the transcript, but now turned it back, as it should be as in the comic. Maybe Randall updates it, as he has done so often when he makes bland mistakes like this, but that has not happened so far when I post here. If he does that should be noted in the trivia along with the reason why. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:05, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

There is mention of the term "existential crisis" in the comic, and I don't see how any of this is related to "current world events". Existential paralysis means that when you only think about the biggest picture possible, nothing seems to matter anyway - it's just us tiny insignificant humans on this planet that will eventually turn barren wasteland when the sun expands etc. This doesn't help instill motivation to act, hence paralysis. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.11.95|172.68.11.95]] 06:57, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
: Could we please go back to simply explain what we see instead of trying to get our political view into the interpretation? I don't see any connection to "current world events", either. The theme of being paralyzed by seeing/realizing the big picture ist nothing new or even closely realated any specific (current or past) event. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 09:10, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
In any case focusing on the activities of Trump is NOT looking at the big picture [[Special:Contributions/162.158.88.212|162.158.88.212]] 16:41, 9 February 2017 (UTC)