explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:950: Mystery Solved

2021-10-09T18:20:02Z

162.158.90.83:

The Northwest Passage is a sea route from the North Atlantic to the Pacific, north of the North American continent. It has not been "open" until very recent years; the icepack extends far enough south that it is not generally navigable. [[Special:Contributions/75.103.23.206|75.103.23.206]] 16:12, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Another possible explanation is that the world includes more than just Earth. Amelia might have had to travel at or over the speed of light, which would also explain the time effects. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.11|108.162.246.11]] 21:23, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Yeah... I'm pretty sure this can't be looked at with a logical eye. I find this explanation to be lacking and I will probably return to do some re-working. [[User:Lackadaisical|Lackadaisical]] ([[User talk:Lackadaisical|talk]]) 01:44, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

About impersonating your son - that's what all vampires and other long-lived people do. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.83|162.158.90.83]] 18:20, 9 October 2021 (UTC)

2526: TSP vs TBSP

2021-10-09T00:06:38Z

162.158.90.83: /* Explanation */ binary prefixes; conversions for teraspoons

{{comic
| number = 2526
| date = October 8, 2021
| title = Tsp vs Tbsp
| image = tsp_vs_tbsp.png
| titletext = It's like one teraspoon / when all you need is a kilonife
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by ALANIS TURINGETTE - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic plays a joke on the common liquid measurements of {{w|teaspoon}}s (tsp) and {{w|tablespoon}}s (tbsp), which are commonly confused. In the US, a teaspoon is defined as 4.9 mL (0.18 imp fl oz; 0.17 US fl oz) while a tablespoon is defined as 14.8 ml (0.50 US fl oz; 3 tsp).

It also plays a joke on metric prefixes (based on powers of 10) versus binary prefixes (based on powers of 2), which are also a common source of confusion (see also [[394: Kilobyte]]). In the International System of Units (SI), T (for ''tera-'') signifies a multiplier of 1012 (that is, 1 000 000 000 000), while Ti (''tebi-'', for ''terabinary''), and not Tb, is an ISO standard binary prefix meaning 230 (that is, 10243 = 1 099 511 627 776).

The title text is a play on a lyric from the Alanis Morissette song "{{w|Ironic (song)|Ironic}}": "It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife." Randall changes the line to "teraspoon" and "kilonife". The knife being translated as k nife with k meaning kilo, hence kilonife instead of kiloknife!

If "spoon" is understood as US teaspoon, then one teraspoon will be 4928.9 cubic meters (1.302 million US gallons or 3.996 acre-feet) and a binary teraspoon will be 5292.4 cubic meters (1.398 Mgal or 4.291 acre-ft). If the US tablespoon is taken as base unit, a teraspoon will be 14 786.8 cubic meters and a binary teraspoon 15 877.2 cubic meters – roughly equivalent to six Olympic-size swimming pools.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Cooking tips: tsp vs tbsp

:[left column:]
:<big>Tsp</big>
:Teraspoon
:1,000,000,000,000
:(1012) spoons

:[right column:]
:<big>Tbsp</big>
:Binary tsp
:1,099,511,627,776
:(10244) spoons

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Computers]]
[[Category:Tips]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:2525: Air Travel Packing List

2021-10-07T09:02:50Z

162.158.90.83:

I'll work on this one, so I don't get edit conflicted. {{User:PoolloverNathan/Signature}} 23:16, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

A lot of these items that are listed as needed during a crash are not that related to crashing but some things that paranoid potential passengers feel they should have anyway. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 02:04, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

I had a teacher that was a retired engineer. He complained about working on an airplane and he wanted to design a lightweight floor, but the heel of high heeled shoes would pierce through so he had to make it heaver than he wanted. One can imagine an alternate world where the lighter floors were chosen, where airplane shoes would be some kind of pressure distributing shoe.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.42.125|172.69.42.125]] 02:32, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

I think that the Flag for international flights is referring to a national flag not to a flag used for signaling messages. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.208|162.158.187.208]] 03:20, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Pedantry corner: parachutes don't keep you from falling out of the sky - they help you land safer when you do. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.95|162.158.159.95]] 08:21, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

The mouthpiece may be a COVID-19 slur, referring to the requirement to cover your mouth -- [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.83|162.158.90.83]] 09:02, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:986: Drinking Fountains

2021-10-05T14:37:08Z

162.158.90.83:

Build a toilet next to the fountain so you can do both at once! '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 06:52, 2 February 2013 (UTC)

I recall when this first posted it randomly had the word water to the left of the door. only evidence of this seems to be on insult sites. [http://xkcd-sucks.blogspot.com/2011/12/comic-986-water-you-stupid.html]--[[User:Calvsie|Calvsie]] ([[User talk:Calvsie|talk]]) 22:56, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
:Apparently he's never stayed up all night and drank 18 beers...[[Special:Contributions/162.158.60.23|162.158.60.23]] 23:54, 5 June 2016 (UTC)
I don't think you can call it 'constant' peeing, as most likely you'll quickly die to water poisoning (yup, too much water can kill you, and I don't mean drowning) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.202.82|162.158.202.82]] 06:04, 24 October 2017 (UTC)

The original with the word water on it is archived: [https://web.archive.org/web/20150326222101/https://xkcd-sucks.blogspot.com/2011/12/comic-986-water-you-stupid.html] [[User:MarkSill|MarkSill]] ([[User talk:MarkSill|talk]]) 13:33, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

It seems to me that he would actually want to drink quickly and eliminate slowly. Does this seem true to anyone else? [[User:Birdsinthewindow|Birdsinthewindow]] ([[User talk:Birdsinthewindow|talk]]) 01:20, 23 May 2020 (UTC)

The least funny [citation needed] ever. What infinite loop is is not an outright obvious fact that every person alive would know. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.83|162.158.90.83]] 14:37, 5 October 2021 (UTC)

Talk:1261: Shake That

2021-10-01T18:12:31Z

162.158.90.83:

Worst xkcd Ever! [[Special:Contributions/78.55.145.25|78.55.145.25]] 08:31, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Hey, it's not the worst xkcd ever. What about the early xkcd strips, where most of them were just sketches or drawings? [[User:GameZone|GameZone]] ([[User talk:GameZone|talk]]) 08:37, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Surely "Worst. xkcd. Ever!" No? Turning to the explanation, I like the phase lag explanation. Never thought of sexual exhibitionism in those terms before.--[[Special:Contributions/203.166.249.26|203.166.249.26]] 08:46, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

:The explanation is definitely pushing this strip up. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 09:30, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Hugely impressed by the explanation. I would never have thought you could write so much about such a dry comic. --[[User:Mynotoar|Mynotoar]] ([[User talk:Mynotoar|talk]]) 09:34, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

This explanation makes me so happy. Make an account, anonymous user at IP 220.224.246.97 and come collect your praise for such a great explanation! --[[User:Jeff|Jeff]] ([[User talk:Jeff|talk]]) 15:27, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps the XKCD website was hacked? {{unsigned ip|‎88.174.225.205}}

Truly stunning explanation. Come and collect your internets. [[Special:Contributions/78.105.231.184|78.105.231.184]] 20:49, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

Haha, PHASE LAG cracked me up. Props for the explanation; I didn't understand the comic at all. {{unsigned ip|223.239.158.130}}

:+++1 for the whole *phase lag* line!{{unsigned ip|92.230.220.144}}

To the nay-sayers: "<nowiki>[XKCD is]</nowiki> A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and '''language'''." Quit with the downers, man, and get with the groove!

(Also, it'd probably be a general rule that, paid-for bodysculpting aside, a girls breasts and/or buttocks have a good chance of being like those of her mother. Thus she 'gives you'(/her) that big butt (''not'' a universally desirable feature amongst womankind) or set of boobies that the DJ/MC/whoever is probably after encouraging the physical highlighting of. But that's a boring (and only half right) detail about the explanation. All praise to the current version, and don't add any more to it on my account.) [[Special:Contributions/31.126.86.231|31.126.86.231]] 19:17, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

Interpreting a "yo mama" line literally was also done in [[502: Dark Flow]]; that connection may give this one similar poignance... [[Special:Contributions/90.197.95.152|90.197.95.152]] 19:24, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

Female breast endowment genes don't express in men. Therefore, although a woman's breast size will about equally correlate (on average) with her maternal grandmother as with her paternal grandmother, it is most definitely more correlated with her mother's bust size than her father's. I'm trying to find a way to add that to the explanation too, but can't find the right pithy phrasing. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 20:20, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

This is now my favorite description --[[Special:Contributions/108.3.190.56|108.3.190.56]] 21:04, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

Moved out of main explanation, and here, since it is tangential:
While the line is used in a male-watching-female context, there is nothing to preclude the reverse, or indeed any alternative sexual orientation and fetishes. It is, however, an applicable one if he/she considers his/her body as something given to her by her mother. This is not entirely spurious a consideration either. Aside from the fact that each human child starts off as an egg in the mother's body, with only a small percentage (at an atomic mass accounting level) of mass inherited from the father, almost all the anabolic material responsible for conferring the birth mass of a baby is obtained through the mother - and from the nutrients she processes. Additionally, female breast size genes don't generally affect bust size in men. Therefore, although a woman's breast size will about equally correlate (on average) with her maternal grandmother as with her paternal grandmother, it is most definitely more correlated with her mother's bust size than her father's.{{unsigned ip|148.87.19.222}}

小撸怡情，大撸伤身，强撸灰飛煙滅 {{unsigned|GorgeousY}}
:It's Chinese, Google translate shows this: "Small line and cheer, great line and beverages, strong line and ashes". This site is English so we don't need different languages without an explain. This here is just spam! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:14, 6 October 2013 (UTC)
::Google translate is horribly imperfect. He seems to be repeating an often made and coherent comment on character. We have little right to censor his speech, although we really should provide appropriate channels for foreign-language visitors. I'll look into that. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 19:42, 6 October 2013 (UTC)
:::You are correct, Google translate is horrible. It just gives a first hint what the meaning could be. In my opinion this is still spam. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:25, 6 October 2013 (UTC)
::::Spam is when a deliberate effort is made to deface the page by putting up gibberish. He's quoting a relevant Chinese semi-meme, that's not spam. We're just not providing him an appropriate outlet for his post. SlashMe wasn't spamming your talk page when he posted in German there, even if the majority of users don't know what you two said, me included. The solution would be alternate language support, not censorship. '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 23:33, 6 October 2013 (UTC)
:::::The line could possibly mean "masturbate rarely and enjoy, masturbate often and hurt your body, masturbate strongly (too often?) and turn into ashes". [[Special:Contributions/108.162.222.78|108.162.222.78]] 06:01, 22 July 2014 (UTC)

Where did the PHASE LAG went? :-( It was the best part of the explanation... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.97.206|141.101.97.206]] 14:52, 6 September 2014 (UTC) tralala

Lackluster strip is totally compensated for by stellar explanation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.83|162.158.90.83]] 18:12, 1 October 2021 (UTC)