explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2240: Timeline of the Universe

2019-12-11T22:09:25Z

172.68.174.22: filled in some of the entries

{{comic
| number = 2240
| date = December 11, 2019
| title = Timeline of the Universe
| image = timeline_of_the_universe.png
| titletext = Not actual size, except technically at one spot near the left.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the BIG BANG. Should include a list of the events, their times, and if they're real, explain what they are, and if they're jokes, explain what they are. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about the size of the universe, presented as a timeline. Some events on it are real, but others are jokes.

The title text is a mathematical joke, based on the Intermediate Value Theorem (IVT). Note that the actual size (A) of the universe is zero at the Big Bang (time t = 0), while the corresponding size of the comic (C) is positive (the shape there has a small but nonzero thickness). Thus, A(0) - C(0) < 0. Also, the actual size of the universe at the present day is larger {{Citation needed}} than the corresponding size of the comic. So we have A(present) - C(present) > 0. Assuming the sizes of the universe and the comic are continuous {{Citation needed}}, by the IVT, there exists a time u in the interval (0, present) such that A(u) - C(u) = 0. Noting such a time u is likely reached very quickly after the Big Bang, it is represented close to the left of the comic. Hence, technically, Randall is correct.

The events presented in the timeline are:

* '''??''' (more than 13.8 billion years ago ({{w|Billion years|Gya}})): the unknown state of the universe prior to the Big Bang, if such a statement is even sensible (is it possible to be "south of the South Pole"?).

* '''{{w|Big Bang}}''' (13.8 Gya): The model of the origin of the universe which has achieved consensus among astronomers. We have observed that all galaxies are receding away from Earth at rates that are roughly proportional to their distance, and the simplest explanation for this is that the universe is expanding. If the universe is expanding, then (unless new physics are discovered) it must have at one time been very, very small and dense; that moment in time is called the Big Bang.

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Planck_epoch|Planck Epoch}}''': The time period starting with the Big Bang .

* '''Medium Bang''' (a joke): If there's a Big Bang, why not have medium one?

* '''{{w|Inflation (cosmology)|Inflation}}''' (10^-36 to 10^-32 seconds after the Big Bang): A theory developed to explain the large-scale structure of the universe that postulates a period when the universe expanded faster than the speed of light

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Quarks_epoch|Quark Epoch}}''' (10^-12 seconds after the Big Bang): The universe is a quark-gluon plasma, up until 10^-6 seconds when it cools enough to coalesce into hadrons, including protons and neutrons.

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Lepton_epoch|Lepton Epoch}}''' (1 second after the Big Bang): Leptons, including electrons, and their associated neutrinos dominate.

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Photon_epoch|Photon Epoch}}''' (10 seconds after the Big Bang): The universe is dominated by photons.

* '''Cool Bug Epoch''' (possibly a joke): There was a period around 10-17 million years after the Big Bang in which the cosmic background radiation was between 273 and 373 K, the temperature range for liquid water. Cosmologists {{w|Avi_Loeb#Early_Universe|have speculated}} that primitive life could have arisen during this period and dubbed it the 'Habitable Epoch of the Early Universe'.

* '''Molded grip''' (a joke): This model of the universe looks somewhat like something you could hold in your hand, so here's a molded grip.

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Cosmic_Dark_Age|Stars form}}''' (100 million years after the Big Bang): The universe cools enough to allow ordinary matter particles to group into stars.

* '''{{w|Stagflation}}''': A pun on two of the meanings of 'inflation', stagflation is a term in economics referring to a situation in which monetary inflation is high, economic growth is slow, and job creation is low.

* '''Settling''' (a joke): Perhaps the universe has been very busy, and needs a rest.

* '''Rebound''' (a joke): Rest time is finished.

* '''Someone tripped and accidentally hit the "Inflation" switch again''' (a joke)

* '''Emergency Stop triggered''' (a joke)

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Galaxy_epoch|Galaxies form}}''' (12.8 Gya)

* '''{{w|Formation_and_evolution_of_the_Solar_System#Formation_of_the_planets|Earth forms}}''' (4.5 Gya)

* '''Present day'''

* '''Future cosmological development handed over to J.J. Abrams, outcome unknown''' (a joke): J.J. Abrams is a science-fiction writer and producer. If he were in charge of the future development of the cosmos, he might decide to subject all of us to some strange plot twist.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:'''Timeline of the Universe'''

:??

:Big Bang
:[The Universe comes in as a circle with action lines around it. It stays the same size for a while.]

:Planck Epoch

:Medium Bang
:[The Universe starts inflating very slowly]

:Inflation
:[The Universe briefly inflates very rapidly, and returns to its normal rate of expansion.]

:Quark Epoch

:Lepton Epoch

:Photon Epoch

:Cool Bug Epoch

:[The Universe starts inflating and deflating rapidly, as if to form a grip.]
:Molded grip

:[Stars appear in the timeline. The Universe starts inflating slightly faster than before.]
:Stars form

:Stagflation
:[The Universe starts deflating slowly.]

:Settling

:Rebound
:[The Universe starts inflating slowly again.]

:Someone tripped and accidentally hit the "Inflation" switch again
:[The Universe starts inflating at the same rate as the Inflation section.]

:Emergency Stop triggered
:[The Universe abruptly stops inflating, and stays level.]

:[Galaxies appear in the timeline. The Universe starts inflating at a medium pace.]
:Galaxies form

:Earth forms

:Present day
:[We see the edge of the Universe, with a rounded shape. Various dotted line predictions are on the edges.]
:Future Cosmological development handed over to J.J. Abrams, outcome unknown
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Charts]]

2240: Timeline of the Universe

2019-12-11T21:44:35Z

172.68.174.22: added entries for the labels in the diagram

{{comic
| number = 2240
| date = December 11, 2019
| title = Timeline of the Universe
| image = timeline_of_the_universe.png
| titletext = Not actual size, except technically at one spot near the left.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the BIG BANG. Should include a list of the events, their times, and if they're real, explain what they are, and if they're jokes, explain what they are. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about the size of the universe, presented as a timeline. Some events on it are real, but others are jokes.

The title text is a mathematical joke, based on the Intermediate Value Theorem (IVT). Note that the actual size (A) of the universe is zero at the Big Bang (time t = 0), while the corresponding size of the comic (C) is positive (the shape there has a small but nonzero thickness). Thus, A(0) - C(0) < 0. Also, the actual size of the universe at the present day is larger {{Citation needed}} than the corresponding size of the comic. So we have A(present) - C(present) > 0. Assuming the sizes of the universe and the comic are continuous {{Citation needed}}, by the IVT, there exists a time u in the interval (0, present) such that A(u) - C(u) = 0. Noting such a time u is likely reached very quickly after the Big Bang, it is represented close to the left of the comic. Hence, technically, Randall is correct.

The events presented in the timeline are:

* '''??''' (more than 13.8 billion years ago ({{w|Billion years|Gya}})): the unknown state of the universe prior to the Big Bang, if such a statement is even sensible (is it possible to be "south of the South Pole"?).

* '''{{w|Big Bang}}''' (13.8 Gya): The model of the origin of the universe which has achieved consensus among astronomers. We have observed that all galaxies are receding away from Earth at rates that are roughly proportional to their distance, and the simplest explanation for this is that the universe is expanding. If the universe is expanding, then (unless new physics are discovered) it must have at one time been very, very small and dense; that moment in time is called the Big Bang.

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Planck_epoch|Planck Epoch}}'''

* '''Medium Bang'''

* '''{{w|Inflation (cosmology)|Inflation}}'''

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Quarks_epoch|Quark Epoch}}'''

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Lepton_epoch|Lepton Epoch}}'''

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Photon_epoch|Photon Epoch}}'''

* '''Cool Bug Epoch'''

* '''Molded grip'''

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Cosmic_Dark_Age|Stars form}}'''

* '''{{w|Stagflation}}''': A pun on two of the meanings of 'inflation', stagflation is a term in economics referring to a situation in which monetary inflation is high, economic growth is slow, and job creation is low.

* '''Settling'''

* '''Rebound'''

* '''Someone tripped and accidentally hit the "Inflation" switch again'''

* '''Emergency Stop triggered'''

* '''{{w|Timeline_of_epochs_in_cosmology#Galaxy_epoch|Galaxies form}}''' (12.8 Gya)

* '''{{w|Formation_and_evolution_of_the_Solar_System#Formation_of_the_planets|Earth forms}}''' (4.5 Gya)

* '''Present day'''

* '''Future Cosmological development handed over to J.J. Abrams, outcome unknown'''

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:'''Timeline of the Universe'''

:??

:Big Bang
:[The Universe comes in as a circle with action lines around it. It stays the same size for a while.]

:Planck Epoch

:Medium Bang
:[The Universe starts inflating very slowly]

:Inflation
:[The Universe briefly inflates very rapidly, and returns to its normal rate of expansion.]

:Quark Epoch

:Lepton Epoch

:Photon Epoch

:Cool Bug Epoch

:[The Universe starts inflating and deflating rapidly, as if to form a grip.]
:Molded grip

:[Stars appear in the timeline. The Universe starts inflating slightly faster than before.]
:Stars form

:Stagflation
:[The Universe starts deflating slowly.]

:Settling

:Rebound
:[The Universe starts inflating slowly again.]

:Someone tripped and accidentally hit the "Inflation" switch again
:[The Universe starts inflating at the same rate as the Inflation section.]

:Emergency Stop triggered
:[The Universe abruptly stops inflating, and stays level.]

:[Galaxies appear in the timeline. The Universe starts inflating at a medium pace.]
:Galaxies form

:Earth forms

:Present day
:[We see the edge of the Universe, with a rounded shape. Various dotted line predictions are on the edges.]
:Future Cosmological development handed over to J.J. Abrams, outcome unknown
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Charts]]

2017: Stargazing 2

2019-11-13T05:03:24Z

172.68.174.22: Fixed gender pronouns; narrator is obviously female; likely Megan. Fixed all occurrences of "he", "his", and "him". Especially in sentences that started with "she" and ended with "his".

<noinclude>:''"2017", this comic's number, redirects here. For the comic named "2017", see [[1779: 2017]].''</noinclude>
{{comic
| number = 2017
| date = July 9, 2018
| title = Stargazing 2
| image = stargazing_2.png
| titletext = I mean, it wasn't exactly MY thesis. When the FAA came to shut down our observatory for using the telescope mirror to shine light at airplanes, I took a thesis and a bunch of doctorates from the supply cabinet on my way out.
}}

==Explanation==
This is the second comic in the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series: The first was [[1644: Stargazing]], two and a half years earlier.

This comic continues with the TV host mixing accurate astronomical information with trivialities, as well as utterly bizarre statements. In the first panel, the host voices surprise that the stars are visible again after disappearing during daylight.

The host mentions three stars in a constellation which she says is called The Triangle, likely referring to the constellation {{w|Triangulum}}, which is in fact just three main stars in a narrow triangle. However, this may also simply be intended to show the host's lack of knowledge of constellations, since she then goes on to point out three other stars forming a triangle and concludes that one can form lots of triangles by connecting groups of three stars. In Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry, any set of three non-collinear points will form a triangle, so to say that there are a "lotta triangles" is both trivial and an understatement.{{Citation needed}} (There are about 125 billion triangles visible in the night sky with around 9096 visible stars.)

Then she points to planets, calling them dots known as "fool's stars" (like fool's gold). This is understandable as planets such as Venus and Jupiter are often mistaken as stars, and one Latin term for a planet was "stella errans", meaning "wandering star". She also notes that lacking interstellar transportation, humanity will likely only reach the planets within our solar system. However, she then makes the seemingly ludicrous assertion that humans will turn these planets into interplanetary landfills, which might be a comment on how humans have used the Earth.

The host also notices a dot of "space trash": An artificial satellite. Since the nascent Space Age, the Earth's orbit has gradually accumulated artificial materials that include satellites, spent rockets, and space stations. There are concerns such debris accumulation will increasingly imperil current and future space projects. However, the host claims there is an app that can tell you "whose fault it is," presumably a satellite-tracking smartphone app such as [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skyview-satellite-guide-find/id694309958?mt=8 SkyView] which can inform you who launched a given satellite and thus whose "fault" that particular bit of space-junk might be.

The host eventually goes off on a tangent when someone from the audience points out something blinking in the sky. The host says it is a plane, and tells them what is inside it. The host continues, "don't bother trying to catch that one." This could be understood as she means it's too hard to point the telescope at it properly because it is moving too fast. In the title text, however, she means this literally, revealing that at one point during her studies she apparently used the reflective mirror of a telescope to shine light directly at airplanes, which caused the {{w|Federal Aviation Administration}} (FAA) to close down the observatory. She claims it was worth getting shut down by the FAA because she completed her thesis for her graduate degree. "Got a thesis out of it" is a phrase typically used by a scholar after discussing a research project, as a way of indicating that it was actually the main research they had conducted as a student in graduate school. Conducting research and writing it up in a thesis is one of the major hurdles toward earning a graduate degree (masters or doctorate).

In the title text, she clarifies that as she was exiting the observatory, she literally "got", as in "stole", someone else's thesis paper and multiple doctorates (presumably framed degrees), either to fraudulently claim them as her own accomplishments, or perhaps just because she wanted to steal stuff. Usually "got a thesis" is shorthand for the process of "writing a lengthy thesis paper and having it be accepted as a requirement for graduation", however in this case she simply swiped someone else's document. The revelations that she's extremely unqualified (and unethical) would explain her many bizarre statements.

==Transcript==
:[In a dark panel, a TV host is standing in front of a group of 5 people: two Cueballs, Ponytail, Hairbun and Megan.]
:Host: Welcome back to stargazing.
:Host: When the stars disappeared this morning, I figured I had to find a new job, but they're ''back!'' This ''rules!''

:[A frame-less white panel in which the host points to the upper right with Megan, ponytail and Cueball looking in that direction.]
:Host: Those three stars form a constellation called the triangle.
:Host: Those three are another triangle.
:Host: Lotta triangles. Very important shape.

:[Back to a dark panel with the host now pointing to the upper left in a close-up.]
:Host: Those dots are planets, or "fool's stars." Without interstellar travel, they're the only ones we can realistically hope to dump trash on.
:Host: Speaking of space trash, that dot is a satellite. There are apps that will tell you whose fault it is.

:[The host is now turned right not pointing, still in a close-up.]
:Off-panel voice: What's that blinking one?
:Host: Airplane. They're full of snacks and money and stuff, but don't bother trying to catch them- they're ''way'' too high up.
:Host: Learned that the hard way in grad school.
:Host: Got a thesis out of it, at least.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]]
[[Category:Comics sharing name|Stargazing]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] 
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]

Talk:2226: Recombination And Reionization

2019-11-10T00:58:02Z

172.68.174.22:

I'm pretty sure the joke in the title text is the juxtaposition of the name of the musician Post Malone with the term pre-star-formation, I can't find any info suggesting he's in any way associated with Selena Gomez. Does anyone see anything more to it than a pre- and post- thing? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 05:11, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

Because it's a convenient number with our unit system, wouldn't millions of devices emit 100MHz noise? I feel that should be added, but I don't know how.

The comic might also be tangentially referencing the 5G network roll out, which like this radio station will also preclude (specifically weather) science from happening. In the case of the 5G networks, the FCC auctioned off the 24ghz band to telecom companies, where water vapor in our atmosphere actually emits a faint signal around 23.8ghz. Any bleed from the 24ghz band into the 23.8 band can and will (according to NOAA) interrupt weather prediction. [https://www.wired.com/story/5g-networks-could-throw-weather-forecasting-into-chaos/]

I suspect that "Hot" and "The Vibe" from the radio station are both references to the science behind this, too. [[User:Bobson|Bobson]] ([[User talk:Bobson|talk]]) 23:17, 9 November 2019 (UTC)


{{Talk:2220: Imagine Going Back in Time/Ads}}

Talk:2217: 53 Cards

2019-11-07T20:56:14Z

172.68.174.22: Added Comment

"This page was last edited [tomorrow]." Okay, good to know. Tomorrow starts three hours from now, my time. This comic reminded me of this article: https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/10/corkscrewing-bouncy-ion-drive-would-provide-thrust-in-different-universe/ [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.88|172.68.38.88]] 00:44, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

I can do this, but my flowchart would be different and involve secretly inserting a joker, using the shuffling as cover for the move.
Collect a deck of 52 cards and have a spectator count the cards. - Secretly hide a joker from the deck in your off-hand (the one without the deck). - Shuffle the cards, letting the hidden card drop on top of the deck. - Keep shuffling, so the inserted joker is well mixed into the deck. - Have a spectator count the cards, looking only at the backs. - 53.
[[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 04:56, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

Actually this is also what encryption scientists have to face talking to not so few encryption enthusiasts who just invented their own encryption method[[Special:Contributions/162.158.234.112|162.158.234.112]] 07:01, 19 October 2019 (UTC)
:Ohg V unir na haornnoyr pvcure! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.253|162.158.158.253]] 13:52, 19 October 2019 (UTC)
:: Shouldn't that be Ohg V unir na haorn'''g'''noyr pvcure! I'm pretty sure that a character got lost.[[User:Jtoebes|Jtoebes]] ([[User talk:Jtoebes|talk]]) 01:47, 26 October 2019 (UTC)
:The difference is that those "own excryption methods" usually work ... not well, but at least little. Now, the algorithms which claim to compress ANY input to smaller size, those tend to be suspicious ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:15, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

Wait, isn't perpetual motion (w.r.t. a inertial reference frame) possible, at least according to Newtonian mechanics? Just launch something into space at high enough speed and "watch" it wander away forever. Extracting (an unbounded amount of) energy from that object is a totally different story... --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.234.94|162.158.234.94]] 10:11, 19 October 2019 (UTC)
:Not really, as even in vacuums particles randomly come into existence. Eventually enough would be in the path to slow it to a stop. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.151|162.158.62.151]] 17:37, 19 October 2019 (UTC)
::Not in Newtonian mechanics. Those random particles are result of quantum physics - and in quantum physics, EVERYTHING is possible, just unlikely (there is extremely small but nonzero probability that all particles in macroscopic object would exhibit tunneling effect moving them in same direction, for example). -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:15, 19 October 2019 (UTC)
:::Even in Newtonian mechanics, the energy would be sapped from the object eventually. Space isn't completely empty. The object will occasionally hit particles that will alter its kinetic energy. Also, as it encounters gravitational fields, there will be stresses and strains in the material of the object and the objects creating the gravitational fields. As an example, think of the Earth rotating in space. It's actually slowing down because of the tidal effect caused by the Moon. Some of the rotational energy is being imparted to the Moon, but some of it is let as heat through friction from the movement of tides. [[User:Jeremyp|Jeremyp]] ([[User talk:Jeremyp|talk]]) 13:39, 22 October 2019 (UTC)
:Vacuum fluctuation (particles), i.e. quantum weirdness, cannot cause trouble. This is because all working QFT, where these vacuum fluctuations appear, take as assumption the strict local conservation of energy-momentum 4-vector, which is the generalisation of what our OP is asking about. This is a fundamental backbone of all modern physics, not just Newtonian mechanics, and the only known violation is in cosmology. Needless to say, when we talk about perpetual motion machines, we have to start by omitting this trivial class. That is, we do not call systems that achieve perpetual motion by exploiting the conservation of linear or angular momentum alone, as perpetual motion machines. Some machines of that form that convert the energy and momentum from one part to the other could be a perpetual motion machine, because in those cases it is possible for the efficiency of conversion to be imperfect, in which case it will always practically be imperfect, leading to the eventual failure. Luckily, on Earth and in practice, there is no need to be careful, because even the linear or angular momentum special case, would be interacting with air---the best vacuum we can get, are still not perfect; it is not perfect even in actual space outside Earth. It just doesn't exist anywhere. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.118|162.158.165.118]] 20:49, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
::Uhhh, and what about ''Ptolemaic'' Mechanics? SOMETHING is keeping the spheres rotating. Seems Randall hasn't really thought this comic through. Someone should challenge him to prove that his comic is true in all idealistic conceptions of the real world. (Please sign off, and make edits separate from others'.)
:::This was a reply to earlier comments. Randall's comic stands funny as-is. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.125|162.158.166.125]] 19:25, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

Getting a 53 card deck from a 52 card deck is easy. First, cut the deck twice. Then, shuffle all parts together; be sure to suffer thoroughly. Finally, take off the top 5 cards, sneak in the Joker on the bottom while nobody's looking, and put the five cards at the "middle". Because of skewed philosophy, you will have gotten a 53 card deck![[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.186|162.158.122.186]]

“The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.” -Alberto Brandolini [[User:Menoshe|Menoshe]] ([[User talk:Menoshe|talk]]) 22:03, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

Note that while it shouldn't be possible to obtain energy from nowhere, there ARE methods which makes hard to find where the energy comes from, and some may be useful (say, perhaps as a new kind of battery?). Also, anything involving not-completely-understood phenomena, like black hole for example, might actually generate energy from source we don't know about yet (parallel universe or something like that). Meanwhile, lot of theoretical designs of perpetual motion machines without working prototype only contain steps which can't possibly get energy anywhere and are completely useless ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 22:15, 19 October 2019 (UTC)
: Black hole physics are one of the best understood. No part of understanding them requires parallel universes. The thing that is really a headache in General Theory of Relativity is that we still do not have a good, localised, way to express the energy stored in the gravitational field. Landau-Lifshitz pseudo-tensor is proved to be unique given the assumptions, but starts with a subtraction of the matter stress-energy tensor, and violates precisely this comic---it says that some gravitational wave situations don't carry away energy, when in fact we know those have to carry away energy. Better defined notions, like ADM energy, are global energy, not localised energy, so that we do not know what they mean, practically. However, even though we are still not fully understanding what mathematical quantity would correctly map to gravitational field energy in the theory, we still do know that it has to be gravitational field energy, and that it has nothing to do with parallel universes. Just to hammer down the singular mistake in your nice comment. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.118|162.158.165.118]] 21:01, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

In the picture it seems that he cuts the cards into a pile of 21 cards and 38 cards (thus making 59 cards) I'm sure that helps his argument (or he can't count.
: Yeah, I noticed that mismatch too! Actually, I interpreted the "cut" as referring to that one old trick where rectangular objects (usually banknotes) would be cut in half and then rearranged with small pieces missing, making one more object than there used to be. This of course would not be a case of "rearranging and shuffling". (If you're wondering why this doesn't work for ''actual'' banknotes, that's because the existence of serial numbers makes this trick far harder, and the ''repeated'' serial numbers on most modern notes make it effectively impossible. But back in the 19th century this actually used to be a problem.) --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.33|172.69.54.33]] 19:26, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Perpetual motion is so easy that we've already done it. The universe isn't going to stop expanding anytime soon, afterall. Also, Voyager (and some other space probes). Everything is perpetual motion in space at solar escape velocity until/unless it hits something. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.214.88|162.158.214.88]] 18:35, 20 October 2019 (UTC)
: This case is by definition excluded from the discussion of perpetual motion. See above for my longer version on it. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.118|162.158.165.118]] 21:03, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

You can always rearrange the matter making up the 52 cards, into 53 smaller cards. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.17|108.162.212.17]] 19:21, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

It's easy to prove, using the Banach-Tarski theorem [[User:Cellocgw|Cellocgw]] ([[User talk:Cellocgw|talk]]) 12:39, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
:If you show me how to dissolve the cards into subatomar theoretical dots by shuffling, I agree. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:36, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Sigh... I really don't like having to keep challenging Kynde, who I believe is a well-intentioned contributor... but as soon as I saw the rewritten explanation with confusing phrasing and broken English, I knew that it was him who did it, and honestly... it just makes the article worse. It's harder to read and comprehend, contains irrelevancies, and swings between explanatory points incoherently. It was, honestly, okay as it was (specifically [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2217:_53_Cards&oldid=181494 this version]). I don't really know what to do about it. I'm of the "be bold in making edits" school of wiki-ing, but I don't want to just flush away other people's well-meant contributions. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 15:01, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Unfortunately, plenty of physicists make the same mistake, losing sight of the fact that math is only a model that must conform to reality, a-la Zeno's Paradox. That's how you end up with silly claims of "if you can [go faster than light] [travel through a wormhole between two distant points in an expanding universe] you'll go backward in time". Or how about the pseudoscience of explaining failed models by assuming that there must be "dark" matter or energy, instead of acknowledging that the model, itself, must be fundamentally wrong the way an actual scientist would. — [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 16:53, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
: What are the chances that the global scientific community, who are setup to attack each other to win funding, would require outsiders to tell them that dark matter and dark energy are indications that their models are "fundamentally wrong"? It just goes to show how rarely you talk to scientists. Cosmologists are always apologising for not knowing what dark energy is, treating them only as the cosmological constant (other alternatives are always explored, but none offer significant improvements upon cosmological constant simplicity). But the dark matter situation already merit a few observational wins, and are starting to look more and more like postulating neutrinos, which is a winning precedent. For two examples, firstly, we have observed localised dark matter causing gravitational lensing. Secondly, we see some galaxy collisions that have dark matter in the wrong place due to the collisions. These evidences are enough to convince most astrophysicists that the basic picture seems correct. Other than this, you should also work on understanding more about how theory and experiment interact in physics, before commenting more upon the matter. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.165.118|162.158.165.118]] 21:17, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
::You fail to understand: Even if something eventually turned up that they could claim is the equivalent of dark energy or matter, it would be an accident, and change nothing about how anti-scientific they had been. The methodology they use is not only wrong, but essentially identical to that used by advocates of the geocentric model when prosecuting Galileo. Dark matter and energy are epicycles and deferents, ridiculous tweaks to models that fail to naturally match observation. Any model that can't hold up to the simplest, barely-scientific benchmark of simply matching observation naturally is a failure. Any adjustments made are a departure from its fundamental premises. At that point it might as well be astrologers tweaking star sign analyses. — [[User:Kazvorpal|Kazvorpal]] ([[User talk:Kazvorpal|talk]]) 01:26, 22 October 2019 (UTC)
:::Well, do ''you'' have a model that matches reality better than what we have? Please enlighten us. Even the geocentric model matched observations and was regarded as ok for a few centuries until we got a better model. Since we don't have a better model, we should try to find evidence or otherwise for the model/s we currently have. {{unsigned ip|162.158.158.213}}

:::What part of "Cosmologists are always apologising for not knowing what dark energy is" do you not understand? That you have a fundamental lack of understanding what the scientific method says upon such conundrums does not mean that you are correct, or that the scientific community should abandon ship and all go ape nuts. You also show your ignorance by trying to link the dark duo to Galilean trials, for they are different in fundamental ways. Not least that scientists today are openly asking for outside ideas to give a better description of dark energy and entertaining all promising leads, as opposed to the closed-minded "Earth isn't moving" of Galilean trials.

:::The actual Galilean trials were an unholy trinity of a) paradigm shift b) leading questions style biasing via unnatural restriction of focus c) doctrinal dangers. A paradigm shift is already exceedingly difficult to bridge the conversational gap, but importantly, at the time, people believed that celestial mechanics behaved differently from earthly mechanics, whereas Galileo's strongest arguments come from pointing out that Aristotelian mechanics and Ptolemy's cosmology had to be abandoned and unified into one complete mechanics. Their narrowing of scope only to celestial mechanics is thus already biasing them into a failure mode that they were ill-equipped to understand.

:::This cannot be compared with the issue today, because opponents of dark matter are free to work on modifications to Newtonian/Einsteinian gravity (MoND), or others. There is neither a paradigm shift, nor indoctrination at play, nor ad hoc separation of concerns. Now, physical theories are allowed to have some free parameters, as long as not so many as to eliminate the possibility of predictions. It is thus telling that dark matter is wildly successful compared to MoND in its predictive powers---we even know that the dark matter cannot be hot type, i.e. not neutrinos, for example, and must be cold dark matter. They also move normally according to Einsteinian gravity, so no shenanigans. These show that the dark matter scheme is scientific and totally could be used to kill off dead ends. Like your ridiculous ignorance, that obviously failed to see how your own argument about "Even if something eventually turned up" already failed the neutrino test, which was why I brought it up the last time around. Leave science to the professionals and stop repeating stupidities---we know everything you are talking about, and have analysed them to be of negative value. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.93|172.69.134.93]] 20:00, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

Well, since it's a non-closed system that is receiving energy... and matter is just solidified energy... :) I'm going to say that Cueball is right so long as his flowchart also contains a StarTrek replicator somewhere. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.64|172.68.90.64]] 20:08, 21 October 2019 (UTC)SiliconWolf

Where's the Banach–Tarski reference! There should totally be an earth-shattering Banach–Tarski reference. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.58.219|162.158.58.219]] 21:36, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
: I agree. Reading this comic led me to google for Banach-Tarski, even if it wasn't mentioned by name. Saibot84 03:25, 23 October 2019 (UTC) {{unsigned|Saibot84}}

Agreed: There should totally be some sort of Axiom of Choice joke here as well. {{unsigned ip|172.68.70.34}}

See also Sam Loyd's "Get Off The Earth" puzzle (and similar illusions where shifting pieces of a larger picture changes the number of objects by redistributing pieces of each one). {{unsigned|SteveMB}}

Something, something, infinite chocolate {{unsigned ip|162.158.166.109}}

Fairly sure if I put enough pressure when forcing cards together I can create additional cards by cutting one down the center (splitting the face and the back) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.22|172.68.174.22]] 20:56, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

Talk:505: A Bunch of Rocks

2019-11-04T04:57:12Z

172.68.174.22:

;Weird thing with lines in it
Could it have something to do with time dilatation? something like "real" time vs "observed" time (my first comment, hope I did it right) [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.82|108.162.241.82]] 20:49, 18 May 2017 (UTC)108.162.241.82

probably has something to do with relativity -- two objects moving, arriving at different points at the same time, or maybe a diagram of spacetime. [[Special:Contributions/66.202.132.250|66.202.132.250]] 16:44, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

It's a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feynman_diagram Feynman Diagram] [[Special:Contributions/206.174.12.203|206.174.12.203]] 19:24, 10 June 2013 (UTC) Toby Ovod-Everett

:I did add the incomplete tag because this comic and also the explain is still really complex. More important: People without a proper physics background never will understand. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:01, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

There is a short story called "SOLE SOLUTION" by Eric Frank Russell which is quite similar to the one in the story. Just in case that matters.{{unsigned|Maob}}

Re Rule 34 - the point is that this comic _is_ cellular automaton porn (as are the YouTube videos of Minecraft calculators and the like). Rule 34 works, bitches! {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.241}}

Not sure what's incomplete about the explain. [[User:MrGameZone|0100011101100001011011010110010101011010011011110110111001100101]] ([[User talk:MrGameZone|talk page]]) 22:56, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Yo ''calculus'' is the latin word for pebble! I learned this and had to come straight to this page! ahhh connections! [[Special:Contributions/173.245.50.88|173.245.50.88]] Sawyer Biddle

As it turns out, Rule 110 seems to be a ''really bad'' way to simulate a universe- you would be much better off using a {{w|Tag_system|Cyclic tag system}}, since Rule 110 takes dozens of generations and potentially hundreds of cells to simulate one step in such a system, or a more sophisticated cellular automaton, such as {{w|Wireworld.}} --[[User:Someone Else 37|Someone Else 37]] ([[User talk:Someone Else 37|talk]]) 05:12, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

To whoever objected to panel number references, does what I did with first words fix that? {{unsigned ip|199.27.128.99}}

Well, that's a pretty unfair comparison in the last panel, the protag is immortal after all, if I'm immortal I might do the same thing, but hey we got a much shorter life to live {{unsigned ip|103.22.201.168}}

The diagram to the right of the Epitaph of Stevinus looks like a system of coupled pendula, often used in math physics courses to illustrate Lagrangian mechanics. Also may relate to elasticity theory. See for example here: http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ThreePendulumsConnectedByTwoSprings. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.96|108.162.221.96]] 03:23, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:If this is true (which seems like the most probable solution so far) then what do the symbols inside the boxes represent?{{unsigned ip|108.162.216.209}}
:: Spring constants, masses, lengths, etc [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.220|108.162.221.220]] 18:11, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
::: The symbols on the top seem to be K and the bottom W. W is often used for angular momentum and K for potential energy. If you are not exactly right you are very close to being so.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.209|108.162.216.209]] 13:45, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
:The "diagram to the right of the Epitaph of Stevinus", also described as "A weird diagram with lines in it", or "partitioning of phase space into fundamental cells", or " system of coupled pendula, often used in math physics courses to illustrate Lagrangian mechanics", can be described more literally: ''There is are two horizontal rulers with divisions 13 pixels apart and 17 pixels apart, respectively; and diagonal lines showing the correspondence between the first four markings of the upper ruler with those on the lower. The intervals seem to be labeled.'' Returning to speculation, I think this suggests an illustration of '''Length contraction (Lorentz coordinate transformation) in Special Relativity'''. [[User:Mrob27|Mrob27]] ([[User talk:Mrob27|talk]]) 20:22, 28 November 2014 (UTC)
:: That seems highly unlikely due to the top labels on this graph. In your explanation they can’t represent anything relevant. Also if this diagram is used to represent spatial contraction, it does not do a good job of it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.209|108.162.216.209]] 13:45, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
::: I imagined the labels were, top row: O', x', (2x)'; bottom row: O, x, 2x, Δv; or perhaps top row: Δx₁', Δx₂', Δx₃'; bottom row Δx₁, Δx₂, Δx₃, 0.7c. I don't think Randall put enough thought into those tiny squiggles for us to be able to use pixel-counting as a hint to which labels interpretation is more likely… but what of it? We can make up labels that fit any interpretation. I did say "Length contraction (Lorentz...)" was just ''speculation''. I do like the "four pendulums coupled by springs" idea, though the horizontals look too ruler-like to me. It might be better just to say "two horizontal ruled lines linked by some diagonals" ! [[User:Mrob27|Mrob27]] ([[User talk:Mrob27|talk]]) 17:00, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
:::: You are totally right, this one may always be pure speculation. Though I am pretty sure the bottom points are labeled w, the top is by no means clear. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.209|108.162.216.209]] 20:46, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
::::: I propose that we change it again, from (current text: "A depiction of length contraction, with two lines of the same length locally but different lengths as one is viewed in motion") to something like ''"A depiction of length contraction with two rulers in relative motion, or of several pendulums coupled by springs"''. Or mention the pendula idea first, I don't want to decide. [[User:Mrob27|Mrob27]] ([[User talk:Mrob27|talk]]) 02:20, 2 December 2014 (UTC)
:::::: Though it's in panel before that one, there's the text "and then some" referencing going beyond what we currently know in a field - could it ''possibly'' be that this is supposed to represent something we haven't derived yet? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 10:44, 2 December 2014 (UTC)
:Also, I'd like to point out that all three diagrams unify the theme of "working out the kinks in quantum mechanics and relativity": The first illustrates a region of the bell curve where a particle might occasionally fall if it is about to exhibit quantum tunneling; the second relates to perpetual motion, thus hinting at general questions like "does quantum mechanics or relativity allow us to violate the laws of thermodynamics in any way?", and the third is from special relativity. [[User:Mrob27|Mrob27]] ([[User talk:Mrob27|talk]]) 20:22, 28 November 2014 (UTC)
:: Having studied (and knowing the fundamentals about what profile is needed to create a device that performs quantum tunneling) I have never seen this graph as a representation of this, and frankly it makes no sense. If this diagram was an energy band the hole or electron would have no need to tunnel to go up or down the energy band as it is a gradual slope. If a device had a profile like this, it would not result in a significant number of tunneling events, especially at the positions that are marked on the diagram. For this to occur there would need to be a peak between the two points, and the points would need to be at similar heights (energy levels). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.209|108.162.216.209]] 13:06, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
::: Yes, you're right: all we know is that it's a bell curve (normal distribution), and mentioning "tunneling" might make the reader think we were saying it is a potential function. I was reading a bit much into it. Why are there two vertical dotted lines at roughly +σ and +2σ? I thought they indicated a "range" as if the graph were illustrating some discussion of things that fall within that range. I also incorrectly remembered what the Epitaph of Stevinus was about, so thanks for the corrections :-) [[User:Mrob27|Mrob27]] ([[User talk:Mrob27|talk]]) 16:57, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
:::: I think we could reasonably add that the function represents a probability distribution of a partial, therefore tying in the quantum aspects. with a minor explanation of the probibility of 1 and 2 sigma. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.209|108.162.216.209]] 20:46, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
::::: I do think it was okay without the extra text referencing quantum mechanics. I was just trying to find a way to relate the image to the words… but there are so many ways to relate the normal distribution to anything in science :-) [[User:Mrob27|Mrob27]] ([[User talk:Mrob27|talk]]) 02:20, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

The bigger picture that's missing on this explains it that this comic seems to suggest that Cueball is God, as in being stuck in Eternity who happened to build a simulated universe, which we all live in. Seeing how he addresses the reader "So if you see a mote of dust vanish from your vision in a little flash or something I'm sorry. I must have misplaced a rock sometime in the last few billions and billions of millennia." {{[[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.238|141.101.105.238]] 10:25, 12 November 2014 (UTC)}}
: I understand that English might not be your first language, but please clarify. The explanation covers Cueball being godlike. How can we add something that is already covered? Do you require further detail? Are you disagreeing with this assessment? Are you considering this observation irrelevant as your summary for your first comment "added not about Cueball being God" seems to imply? If so why?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.209|108.162.216.209]] 17:57, 12 November 2014 (UTC)
:: nm. I blatantly overlooked the exisiting sentence in the explanation. i blame the layout of this page. inline text that spans the whole available screen width is not pleasant to read on large displays ;) ...as for my English... the confusion stems from my bad keyboard/typing. it was meant to read "added notE about Cueball" for instance, or "as in A being stuck". [[Special:Contributions/141.101.105.233|141.101.105.233]] 08:15, 13 November 2014 (UTC)
:::you could shrink your window and display narrower lines of text(?) -- I guess it comes down to preference for masochism(?)... idunno. I think one of the most confusing parts of your question (and which may have contributed most to the ESL idea) is "missing on this explains it that...". Also, "as in being stuck" makes more sense than "as in a being stuck", though it seems you're suggesting otherwise (?) and I don't see any text mentioning added not(E) about Cueball) -- oh wait; is this a troll? -- [[User:Brettpeirce|Brettpeirce]] ([[User talk:Brettpeirce|talk]]) 15:14, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

Who or what is Nugui and why is it relivent.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.209|108.162.216.209]] 17:57, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

is randall not assuming that his universe (and by implication ours) is finite? if not, one iteration of the machine would still take infinite time. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.201|141.101.98.201]] 12:42, 26 November 2014 (UTC)
: I think it's good enough to assume that the universe is finite, but really really huge. Hypothesizing that adding one particle to the model requires twice as many cells in the cellular automaton, that means that Cueball's cellular automata rows could be about 2^(10^80) cells long, allowing simulation of a physics system containing 10^80 particles. Of course, each planck-time would require 2^(10^80) steps of simulation in the CA. If 10^80 isn't big enough for you, then just make it 10^1000 or Graham's number, or anything finite. [[User:Mrob27|Mrob27]] ([[User talk:Mrob27|talk]]) 16:57, 1 December 2014 (UTC)
:: Don't forget that Rule 110 has 000 -> 0. Cueball can just add columns on either side as his universe expands, consequently taking more and more time to compute steps as the number of columns increases. {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.42}}

Did anyone notice that the binary numbers pointing to the particle are both 42? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.16|108.162.241.16]] 19:26, 27 November 2014 (UTC)
:I did now. :) But, somewhere, he left out the towel. [[User:Jarod997|Jarod997]] ([[User talk:Jarod997|talk]]) 14:33, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Just as a curiosity -- there is a somewhat similar concept in "Permutation City", a book by Greg Egan. {{unsigned ip|141.101.88.211}}
:And dust is probably a reference to Dust Theory: http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/PERMUTATION/FAQ/FAQ.html {{unsigned ip|141.101.98.187}}

I don't understand how it's possible to simulate a universe this way. Assuming that quantum mechanics is correct, and some forms of particle decay are truly random, wouldn't it be impossible to simulate this with a purely deterministic system? [[User:KingSupernova|KingSupernova]] ([[User talk:KingSupernova|talk]]) 15:30, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
: The universe Cueball is simulating would have to conform to [[wikipedia:Digital physics|digital physics]]. I can't speak about the fine points of quantum mechanics, but observably random events in a simulated universe could be the result of a pseudorandom number generator with a very large state. [[User:Srimech|Srimech]] ([[User talk:Srimech|talk]]) 23:37, 16 February 2016 (UTC)

This is definitely my favorite comic. I just really love it - I wish there was a book or something about it that was more in depth. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.5|108.162.219.5]] 14:32, 5 June 2016 (UTC)
:Yeah. Wow. Just... Wow. I would be so interested if this were somehow true. I just wish he could occasionally figure out how to mess with our retinas by spontaneously flipping bits in order to make us see a representation of him. That would be awesome, right? If I can make my own universe, well... I would do that. Also, I love this guy, real or not. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 16:10, 5 January 2017 (UTC)

----
I was thinking the whole "eternity in a wasteland" was just a Calvin and Hobbes type fantasy that the bored student conjured up to describe how he felt about this class. ~~ Jelsemium

This still isn't anywhere near as big as 3^^^3. Mathematicians are very good a making big ass-numbers. ~~ Schrodinger's Wolves

Talk:2220: Imagine Going Back in Time

2019-10-28T13:59:00Z

172.68.174.22: /* Google ads */

I wonder if Randall had a particular "frog pokemon" in mind? Croagunk, Toxicroak, Froakie, Frogadier, Greninja...? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.44.150|172.69.44.150]] 19:58, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
:Hint: First, Pokemon Go didn't finished deploying generation 5 pokemons yet. Second, Trump is totally toxic. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:17, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
::The Poliwhirl family dates from Generation 1 and is the "original" frog pokémon. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.36|162.158.122.36]] 23:59, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
:::Yes so fur sure the frog Pokémon Politoed from gen 2, since the Poliwag is tadpoles. I agree that Toxicroach or Croagunk would fit better with Trump in Randall's view, but it is a reelect Trump fan, so he would most likely use a green frog that is not "ugly". Have added this to the description with link to page with picture. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:08, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

"... and I suppose Marla Maples is the first lady!" [[Special:Contributions/172.68.38.88|172.68.38.88]] 20:04, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
I know that Randall, and by extension Cueball, are not enthusiastic about the idea of dealing with a player who goes by "Reelect Trump 2020", but what does it mean that there is a frog Pokemon in the gym alongside? In other words, is Cueball's annoyance just that there is a Trump-promoting player in the game or is there more to it than that? --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.90.46|172.69.90.46]] 20:16, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
:I see that at least you made the connection to the original "Back to the Future" when Marty meets Doc in 1955 and tells him that Ronald Reagan is President. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 06:04, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

:Definitely the Trump-promoting, as Toxicroak wouldn't be that hard pokemon to remove, with max CP 2488. Wait, "next to mine"? Ok, so he plays same team as Cueball and Cueball CANT remove it due to that. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:17, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
::And it is not a toxic pokémon when it is a fan of Trump that put it in! See above. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:08, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

:The frog Pokemon is likely a reference to Pepe the Frog, which is a meme popular with Trump supporters--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.90.112|172.68.90.112]] 20:52, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Trump was quite sufficiently (in)famous by 1999. Remember that he divorced his most famous wife, Ivana, in 1991. His various business and romantic <s>failures</s> ventures were regular tabloid fodder throughout the 90s. If you think a 1999 person would have never heard of Trump, you're obviously <s>too young to be using the internet</s> younger than I am. I think the main joke in this comic is that Cueball goes back expecting his younger self to go, "wait, re-elect WHO??", but his younger self doesn't even bat an eyelash at that part. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.52.175|173.245.52.175]] 21:03, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
:Famous, yes. Expected to became president, no. And young Cueball might be too young to care about tabloids and celebrities. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:17, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
:Nobody - not even Randall - is suggesting ANYBODY didn't know who Trump was in 1999. He's been quite famous for decades. The surprise here is that he's president, not who he is. [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 03:29, 26 October 2019 (UTC)
:He was famous enough to be a recognizable cameo in ''Home Alone 2'' with no explanation (and ''Home Alone 2'' was basically ''the'' holiday movie at the time, since no one liked ''Home Alone 3''), but that fame was nothing compared to how famous he'd become later--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.36|162.158.122.36]] 15:07, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

Has no one considered that we have been "dumbed down" to the point that so-called adults playing Pokemon and so-called adults voting for Trump are inextricably linked and are symptoms of the same malaise - a general inability to think for ourselves and a deep susceptibility to marketing, advertising and following the herd[[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.148|108.162.241.148]] 03:05, 26 October 2019 (UTC)
:Yes, but nobody important. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.98|172.69.34.98]] 03:11, 26 October 2019 (UTC)
::Adults playing Pokemon just means they’re happy doing what makes them happy, why should someone be ashamed of it? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.166.141|162.158.166.141]] 10:35, 26 October 2019 (UTC)
:::Yes, I play Pokémon Go, I'm in my forties, and most of the other players I play with are adults although here it has had a revive with the kids in school again. I get a lot of fresh air and more exercise than I got before starting to play 2,5 year ago. And with Randall's obsession with Pokémon and his knowledge about the games mechanics he most likely plays it himself. There are millions of adults playing every day as it is one of the most downloaded apps in app store. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:08, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

Just as I remember reading in a 1969 textbook that Ronald Regan was going to someday be elected President if (then current) political trends that became the “southern strategy” weren’t addressed, I also remember reading at least one op-Ed piece in the late 1990’s that if the political parties didn’t clean house and get rid of undue influence from big donors that someday Donald Trump would become President. There were people worried about Trump in 1999.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.129|162.158.62.129]] 04:13, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

I can't help but wonder if the wording of the title text is meant to invoke another shocking reveal when considering what "trendy adults" really are into these days.--[[User:Henke37|Henke37]] ([[User talk:Henke37|talk]]) 15:30, 26 October 2019 (UTC)

What's with the width of this comic? It's too wide, and it breaks out of the standard xkcd.com layout a little bit. --[[User:NeatNit|NeatNit]] ([[User talk:NeatNit|talk]]) 16:31, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

20 years ago, I was a whiny little shit and would have probably ranted that I'm to cool for Pokemon, instead of just admitting that it looks interesting and would have wanted a gameboy to play it myself. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.55.22|172.69.55.22]] 10:10, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

I am not sure which I find more disturbing. Randall's apparent unthinking Trump Derangement Syndrome (I would have imagined him too intelligent to fall for mere politics) or the fact that Explain XKCD seems to have been invaded by Goldman Sachs advertising. If you are going to use an ad rotator, could you at least set it to display DIFFERENT adverts on the same page? I don't need to see the same advert 3 times. [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 12:55, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
:In all fairness, I must point out that it is ''Cueball'' giving an kneejerk anti-Trump reaction in this comic, not Randall himself. While Randall does often project his own views through the characters of his comic, we cannot say for certain that that is the case here. In the past he has often created characters with incorrect or strawman positions in order to make a point or to satirize them. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 13:46, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

== Google ads ==

When looking at the article page, I'm seeing several Google ads splashed across the full width of the article space, breaking it up randomly and making it more difficult to read (it sometimes interrupts the Transcript, for example, and also randomly crops up in the already-hard-to-read Discussion box). It looks awful. Is anyone else seeing them? I understand that ads are needed to pay for Explain XKCD's server costs, but they're really detrimental to the article. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 13:13, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
: Yeah, I'm seeing them, too, and I agree. ExplainXKCD is one of the few pages on my AdBlock white list. Please don't make me reconsider my decision. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 13:47, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
: Thank you for creating the new section. Yes, not only am I seeing them invade the text, but invade the text three times with the same advert. Perhaps we need a new tag to make room for advertising [[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.22|172.68.174.22]] 13:59, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

2218: Wardrobe

2019-10-23T20:32:32Z

172.68.174.22: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2218
| date = October 21, 2019
| title = Wardrobe
| image = wardrobe.png
| titletext = If you'd just agree to hold your meetings in here, you'd have PLENTY of time to figure things out before the deadline.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a NARNIAN-BRITISH BORDER CHECKPOINT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
[[Megan]] leaves [[Cueball]] outside while she goes into a wardrobe to consult with Tumnus on the pressing question, if Narnia is part of the EU. It turns out they have joined after the UK, which makes Megan complain about another border to deal with. And Cueball waiting outside goes looking for a lock for the wardrobe door.

This comic references ''{{w|The Chronicles of Narnia}}'', a series of children's fantasy books by {{w|C.S. Lewis}} (some of which were later {{w|The Chronicles of Narnia (film series)|made into movies}}, plays, and TV and radio shows) about a group of children from England who travel to a magical land called Narnia. In the first book of the series (by publication date), ''{{w|The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe}}'', Narnia is accessible through a wardrobe, which is located in a residence in the English countryside. {{w|Mr. Tumnus}} is a {{w|faun}} in Narnia and the first character that the first human visitor, {{w|Lucy Pevensie}}, meets on her first trip through the wardrobe portal. Referencing Narnia is a [[:Category:Chronicles of Narnia|recurring theme]] in xkcd. Tumnus was depicted in the first comic to reference Narnia: [[665: Prudence]].

The comic also makes reference to membership in the {{w|European Union}}. The {{w|United Kingdom}} (UK) is a member of the EU at the time of this comic, but narrowly voted in 2016 to exit the EU (a process commonly referred to as {{w|Brexit}}, short for "British Exit"), but working out the details of this separation has proven more complicated than the simple in/out vote implied.

One of the major issues has been the border between {{w|Northern Ireland}} and the {{w|Republic of Ireland}}. The two countries share the {{w|island of Ireland}}, but Northern Ireland is part of the UK while Ireland is an independent country which remains part of the EU. If/when the UK exits the EU, it will have different customs regulations than the Republic of Ireland, and there will need to be some kind of customs border. The most obvious solution would be to establish a controlled land border between the two countries, but this would raise some serious difficulties and dangers.

Northern Ireland has had a long history of civil unrest and ethno-nationalist conflict. The most recent period of conflict, commonly referred to as {{w|The Troubles}}, resulted in over 3000 deaths between 1969 and 1998. In 1998, the UK and Ireland entered into a treaty, known as the {{w|Good Friday Agreement}} (overwhelmingly approved by referendums in both parts of Ireland). This treaty was intended to resolve many of the issues that drove the conflict, and has largely been successful in putting a stop to the violence. One of the agreements in the treaty was a totally open border between the two parts of Ireland. As both were in the EU, this was easily done, because they already shared a customs union. Over the following two decades, the ease of transit created major trade links between the two areas, and many people lived in one country and worked in the other. In the UK Brexit referendum, a majority of Northern Ireland voters voted to remain in the EU. Placing a hard border between the two countries would create major economic disruptions, and serious hardships for people living near the border. It would also undermine the intent of the Good Friday Agreement, which could lead to terrorist attacks and the rekindling of hostilities. The Irish government raised this issue from the time Brexit was first proposed, but their warnings were not fully heeded.

The alternative to this border would be to maintain open borders between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but institute customs checks between the island of Ireland and the United Kingdom. This solution is also considered extremely undesirable, as it would effectively separate Northern Ireland from the UK, which is unacceptable to many citizens of both Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

While the Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland border issue has received the most attention, the UK has land borders with two other EU countries. The UK territory of Gibraltar shares a border with Spain. There are also two Sovereign Bases Areas that share a border with the Republic of Cyprus.

The portal in the wardrobe represents ''another'' border of the UK, namely the border between England and Narnia. This 'border', of course, exists only in fiction, but the joke here is that it must be dealt with in the Brexit negotiations, further complicating an already messy situation. A further source of implicit humor is the juxtaposition of a fantasy children's tale about the magical land of Narnia with the highly contentious, political, adult world of Brexit.

Cueball suggests solving the situation by simply locking the wardrobe (which was never very accessible, even in ''The Chronicles of Narnia''), effectively isolating the UK from Narnia and making the border problem moot. This wouldn't work even in the fictional world of the books, as new ways to enter Narnia pop up in every book, although most of them are accessible only to the kids from the first book and their friends.

The title text references the amount of time it has taken to complete the Brexit negotiations, currently three-plus years and counting. The negotiators have set a series of deadlines to complete the negotiations, but have repeatedly had to extend those deadlines because they haven't reached any agreement. The comic was posted roughly one week before the then-current Brexit deadline of Oct. 31, 2019. However [https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/19/eu-says-britain-has-requested-an-extension-of-brexit-deadline-after-uk-lawmakers-delay-vote.html it was already expected that that deadline too would probably be extended]. In ''The Chronicles of Narnia'', time moves inconsistently in Narnia compared to Earth, usually passing more rapidly in Narnia than on Earth. Lucy Pevensie and her siblings enter the wardrobe as children, have extensive adventures in Narnia lasting many years, and then return to the real world to find that they are children again and that only a few minutes have passed. The suggestion here is that holding the slow, complex Brexit negotiations in Narnia would take relatively little time in the real world, and the whole affair could be completed in time for the deadline.

A punchline similar to the title text, where the slower passing of time was used to take on time-intensive real world problems, was also used for one of the comics in [[821: Five-Minute Comics: Part 3]]. The time difference was also mentioned in the title text of [[1786: Trash]].

==Transcript==
:[Megan is entering into an open wardrobe, while Cueball stands outside.]
:Megan: I'll go ask.
:Megan: You wait here.

:[Cueball stands outside the now-closed wardrobe.]

:[In a frame-less panel Cueball keeps standing outside the closed wardrobe with voices heard from inside the wardrobe. The characters talking are inferred from the context.]
:Mr. Tumnus (from inside wardrobe): Halt! Who goes there?
:Megan (from inside wardrobe): Hey Tumnus. Quick question.
:Mr. Tumnus (from inside wardrobe): Yes?

:[Cueball is walking away from the closed wardrobe. Voices can still be heard from inside the wardrobe.]
:Megan (from inside wardrobe): Is Narnia in the E.U.?
:Mr. Tumnus (from inside wardrobe): Yes, we joined after you did.
:Megan (from inside wardrobe): Oh great, ''another'' border to deal with.
:Cueball: I'll go find a lock for the door.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Chronicles of Narnia]]
[[Category:Politics]]

Talk:2198: Throw

2019-09-12T11:58:12Z

172.68.174.22: /* Negative and malformed inputs */ new section

I created this page as it seem DgbrtBOT fails because it is interactive. So far it still won't shown on the front page or with a button to it from the previous comic or the "newest" comic button. Maybe it just takes some time? It is now in the [[List_of_all_comics]] but still no luck getting it to work... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:58, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
:Maybe it is because it was published on a tuesday? --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:16, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
::No it is not unusual that a comic does not come out on MWF. For instance the Sunday comic recently. Here is the list of Tuesday comics: [[:Category:Tuesday_comics]]--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:29, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
:Also it doesn't display my comment below the explanation. Something is very broken here...--[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:25, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
:It appears now. [[User:PkmnQ|PkmnQ]] ([[User talk:PkmnQ|talk]]) 08:53, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
How did he get an estimate for Carly Rae Jepson, anyway? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.34|162.158.255.34]] 09:52, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgwAywJlo1M [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.221|172.68.142.221]] 09:55, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
::Alternatively he could have worked together with her, as with Serena Williams. I will look it up in the afternoon, when I have my preordered book :) --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:22, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

By the transitive property of Worthiness, if Capt America can throw Thor's Hammer, surely George Washington is Worthy!{{unsigned ip|172.69.68.141}}

I got this data from the code:
{| class="wikitable"
! id
! name
! canThrow
! canBeThrown
! length
! diameter
! mass
! dragC
! throwPower
|-
| microwave
| A microwave oven
| false
| true
| 0.406
| 0.406
| 10.591
| 0.8
|
|-
| basketball
| a basketball
| false
| true
| 0.243
| 0.243
| 0.624
| 0.3
|
|-
| blender
| a blender
| false
| true
| 0.203
| 0.203
| 5.216
| 0.8
|
|-
| gold_bar
| a gold bar
| false
| true
| 0.0535
| 0.0535
| 12.4
| 0.8
|
|-
| cake
| a wedding cake
| false
| true
| 0.51
| 0.51
| 13
| 0.8
|
|-
| pingpong
| a ping pong ball
| false
| true
| 0.04
| 0.04
| 0.003
| 0.5
|
|-
| quarterback
| an NFL quarterback
| true
| false
| 1.905
| 0.584
| 102.058
| 0.6
| 20
|-
| acorn
| an acorn
| false
| true
| 0.0191
| 0.0191
| 0.0045
| 0.3
|
|-
| hammer
| thor's hammer
| false
| true
| 0.5
| 0.15
| 2000
| 0.4
|
|-
| javelin
| a javelin
| false
| true
| 1.8
| 0.0254
| 0.8
| 0.1
|
|-
| george
| George Washington
| true
| true
| 1.829
| 0.562
| 90.718
| 0.6
| 15
|-
| pikachu
| Pikachu
| true
| true
| 0.4
| 0.3
| 5.9874
| 0.4
| 10
|-
| car
| A car
| false
| true
| 4.5
| 2.134
| 1179.34
| 0.25
|
|-
| silver_spin
| a silver dollar (spinning)
| false
| true
| 0.04
| 0.011
| 0.027
| 0.5
|
|-
| silver_tumble
| a silver dollar (tumbling)
| false
| true
| 0.04
| 0.04
| 0.027
| 0.66
|
|-
| carly
| Carly Rae Jepsen
| true
| false
| 1.575
| 0.46
| 49.895
| 0.6
| 10
|-
| thor
| thor, god of thunder
| true
| false
| 1.91
| 0.59
| 91
| 0.6
| 10000
|-
| chris hemsworth
| chris hemsworth
| true
| false
| 1.91
| 0.59
| 91
| 0.6
| 10
|-
| squirrel
| A squirrel
| true
| true
| 0.203
| 0.096
| 0.454
| 0.6
| 10
|}
(Sorry if this table messes the talk page.)[[Special:Contributions/162.158.78.136|162.158.78.136]] 13:51, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
:Nah its great. Not sure how to use it in the explanation yet, but guess it will go in there somehow later.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:28, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

:{| class="wikitable"
! id
! name
! canThrow
! canBeThrown
! length
! diameter
! mass
! dragC
! throwPower
|-
| you
|
|
|
|
| (mass^(1/3))/8
|
| 0.6
| 5/10/15/20
|}
:Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.64|172.68.110.64]] 09:17, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

The comic looks different on my screen, not displaying multiple possible selections next to each other, but all below each other. Quite dynamic... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 14:26, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
:If I zoom out I can make it shown only one item each line, but if I zoom in two is maximum. But it should go in the explanation when we get there.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:28, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

The suggestion to litteraly throw a party in the air could be a reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy in which there is a flying building with a party in it, and there's even Thor partying in it when the protagonists are coming there. --Roger 15:12, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

Any reason why George Washington has 50% more throw power than Christ Hemsworth? Some reference? ~TK

Interesting, there appears to be additional units of measurement in the source code that were not used in the comic: "wiffles" and "light-nanoseconds" [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.52|108.162.241.52]] 16:52, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
:I'm going to try to add those to the table; I know where nano-light seconds are, but could you give an example length that's converted to wiffles? --[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 16:41, 4 September 2019 (UTC)
::Pulled unit data from the code:
::{| class="wikitable"
! id
! plural name
! conversion
|-
|meter
|meters
|meters:1
|-
|foot
|feet
|meters:.3048
|-
|furlong
|furlongs
|meters:201.168
|-
|attoparsec
|attoparsecs
|meters:.03086
|-
|smoot
|smoots
|meters:1.7
|-
|wiffle
|wiffles
|meters:.0089
|-
|football_field
|football fields
|meters:91.44
|-
|rack_unit
|rack units
|meters:.04445
|-
|horse
|horses
|meters:2.4
|-
|manhattan_block
|manhattan blocks
|meters:80
|-
|light_nanosecond
|light-nanoseconds
|meters:.03
|-
|kilogram
|kilograms
|kg:1
|-
|pound
|pounds
|kg:.453592
|}
::N.B. Conversion for "wiffles" is off by a factor of ten (i.e. should be .089 rather than .0089). While wiffles should be the next unit above rack-units and below feet, the unit conversion typo prevents it from being accessible by any thrower-object combination, as far as I can tell. [[User:OneHunted|OneHunted]] ([[User talk:OneHunted|talk]]) 02:57, 5 September 2019 (UTC)

Does it seem... excessive to anyone else that the NFL quarterback can throw a silver dollar almost two football fields?[[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.161|172.68.142.161]] 17:08, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

The explanation for Manhattan block conversion appears to be wrong. They mention that their calculation for how large one block is was made with 4 numbers ignoring George Washington as an outlier. However there are 6 total examples of Manhattan block to use and George Washington's is not an outlier. I calculated the mean with all of the data to be 79.9142 meters.--[[User:Szeth|Szeth]] ([[User talk:Szeth|talk]]) 17:12, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

We need a table with a brief description of each thrower. [[User:DKMell|DKMell]] ([[User talk:DKMell|talk]]) 17:14, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

How do we know how old George Washington was when he throws a squirrel? Speaking of age, this format kind of reminds me of the Magnus comic: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1628:_Magnus [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.52|108.162.241.52]] 17:41, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

I think we need to add something about the myth that George Washington threw a silver dollar across the Potomac River [[Special:Contributions/108.162.241.40|108.162.241.40]] 19:42, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
: I agree it adds to the appreciation of the humor and have added that myth to the explanation. I have also added the fact that football quarterbacks are specialists at throwing the ball. [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 13:55, 4 September 2019 (UTC)
:: might be worth noting that, as this incident susposedly occured when Washington was a young man, he would not have thrown a US silver dollar. The coin would have been a Mexican Peso (a Spanish 8 Reales coin, aka "piece of eight").

Pretty sure that the ping-pong ball distances are severely overestimated due to air resistance slowing them very rapidly. Someone with lab facilities might want to check... --[[User:Marcus Rowland|Marcus Rowland]] ([[User talk:Marcus Rowland|talk]]) 19:49, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
:Sorry, never mind, I think I saw a very early version of the actual page that had the distances much greater - seems reasonable now. --[[User:Marcus Rowland|Marcus Rowland]] ([[User talk:Marcus Rowland|talk]]) 19:53, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
The buttons look to be failing simply because [[Template:LATESTCOMIC]] hasn't been updated with the lastest comic number - the page is protected so needs someone with higher powers than I. [[User:Dresken|Dresken]] ([[User talk:Dresken|talk]]) 19:59, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
'Worthiness' was only a thing in the comics. In the myths Thor had a belt of strength and a couple other things. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.125|172.69.33.125]] 21:35, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

Unless I am missing something there is a unit conversion error for pound and kilogram. For instance if you enter 1.83m and 90.7kg for "YOU" the throw distance by Thor is 137m. However, if you enter the equivalent weight of 200lb you get a throw distance of 183m.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.206.28|172.68.206.28]] 23:20, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

: That is correct! The mass gets converted twice from pounds to kg. The intermediate mass (after one conversion, i.e. the correct mass) is used for deducing the diameter - so the same results cannot be easily obtained. Clearly a bug! Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.82|172.68.110.82]] 13:47, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

"An American football field (where Randall comes from) is 100 yards or 91.44 m long" Please rewrite. I don't think (and I humbly reserve the right to be wrong) that Randall did not come from a football field. [[User:OtterlyAmazin|OtterlyAmazin]] ([[User talk:OtterlyAmazin|talk]]) 23:24, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
: I attempted a rewrite per your request - hopefully I have addressed the issue without making things worse. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 01:37, 4 September 2019 (UTC)
::I've substituted another explanation - American Football (the game with the field implied to be measured here) is ''not'' only played in North America, and Canadioan Football fields, in North America, have different measurements. No doubt someone else will replace my edit in turn.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.238|108.162.210.238]] 03:02, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Should images of the throwers and objects be included? As the comic image is not interactive as the full comic, one cannot see what Randall's version of e.g. Thor or Chris H. looks like, without of visiting the actual comic and using it. Similar things have been done with other interactive comics (IIRC). --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:13, 4 September 2019 (UTC)
: I tried to do just that. However, apparently, only special users are allowed to upload files: "Upload error - You do not have permission to create new pages." An uploaded image file seems to count as a "page" for MediaWiki. I prepared a 7zip file with all of this comic's thrower/item images from xkcd, already properly renamed. It's [https://ufile.io/qq1klu37 available for download here]. In case some mighty editor comes along and would want to upload the images and insert them on this page, please feel free to do so. --[[User:Passerby|Passerby]] ([[User talk:Passerby|talk]]) 20:20, 4 September 2019 (UTC)
::Great work with the files, I used them and included a table with the images instead of a list of throwers and objects. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:44, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
::: Thank you, [[User:Kynde|Kynde]]! Turned out even better than what I had in mind for the images. :) --[[User:Passerby|Passerby]] ([[User talk:Passerby|talk]]) 17:52, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
::::Thanks a lot Passerby, that means a lot. And you made my job much easier. Have used your formatting for the names of other images I have added. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:50, 6 September 2019 (UTC)

Could somebody figure out the equation he's using from the book and post it in the explanation? --[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 14:57, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Instead of Carly Rae Jepsen, he should have used Kelsey Plum who throws t-shirts like a cannon! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeO2BSHj36I] [[User:Rtanenbaum|Rtanenbaum]] ([[User talk:Rtanenbaum|talk]]) 15:16, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Used Formulas:

g = 9.805;

A = (3 * thrower_length * thrower_throwPower * thrower_mass / (object_mass + thrower_mass / 1000))^(1 / 3);

B = sqrt(2 * object_mass * g / (PI * (object_diameter / 2)^2 * 1.2041 * object_dragC));

Result = A^2 * sqrt(2) / (g * sqrt(A^4 / B^4 * 0.8 + A^2 / B^2 * 3 + 2));

Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.64|172.68.110.64]] 15:39, 4 September 2019 (UTC), slightly corrected on --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.64|172.68.110.64]] 21:37, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

: 1,2041 is in units of kg/m³ and is the density of air at sea level; both A and B are in units of speed m/s; throwPower is in m²/s³, or equivalently in m/s * N/kg. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.82|172.68.110.82]] 21:22, 4 September 2019 (UTC)
:: Or equivalently W/kg Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.82|172.68.110.82]] 10:49, 6 September 2019 (UTC)

I posted this yesterday but it didn't "take." The alternative distance-units used are entirely a function of the distance thrown in meters:
light-nanoseconds (1.00-1.06m), atto-parsecs (1.07-2.69m), rack units (2.70-6.67m), feet (6.68-16m), smoots (16-36m), horses (36-75m), manhattan blocks (75-131m), football fields (132-201m), furlongs (201m+). It's not true that only Thor uses furlongs; a sufficiently large and athletic custom thrower can throw a javelin 206 furlongs. To get light-nanometers, trying having a minimally-athletic "You" 0.2m tall and 129kg throw a gold brick.
-[[User:Jojo|Jojo]] ([[User talk:Jojo|talk]]) 18:44, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Er, I meant "to get light-nanoseconds." (It's my first post. Obviously I had to make a mistake.) --[[User:Jojo|Jojo]] ([[User talk:Jojo|talk]]) 18:48, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Should the hotlinking/embedding image at https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/throw.png be referencd somehow? [[User:Kyuuhachi|Kyuuhachi]] ([[User talk:Kyuuhachi|talk]]) 20:17, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Re: Mjolnir, an enchanted hammer in Marvel comics? Does this reference take priority over the Norse myths: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mj%C3%B6lnir
:I think the current explanation allows the interpretation, that Mjölnir is a marvel invention. That is of course wrong. However, if you look at the drawing style of Thor and Mjölnir, and the fact that Chris H. is also available for selection, we can agree, that this hammer in fact represents the hammer inside the Marvel universe, which is merely based upon the orginial nordic god. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:36, 5 September 2019 (UTC)

:September 5 2019 9:05 Pacific time --- I found that while it seems that thor is the only one capable of throwing thor's hammer, with the customized "you" at 30 feet tall and 1000 pounds, and a super trainer, you can throw thor's hammer 1.5 meters. Conclusion - Giants are inherently worthy. And George Washington is not.

I'm surprised Randall didn't add a "worthiness" variable into the formula somehow. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.69.34|172.69.69.34]] 16:50, 5 September 2019 (UTC) Sam

It seems that different items can be thrown different minimum distances. The microwave oven can be thrown a minimum of 1.22 meters, the cake a minimum of 1.53 meters, the hammer a minimum of 1.50 meters, the javelin a minimum of 5.40 meters, George Washington a minimum of 5.49 meters, Pikachu a minimum of 1.20 meters, the car 14 meters, and the basketball, blender, gold bar, ping-pong ball, acorn, both coins, and the squirrel a minimum of 1.00 meters. Include in article? --[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 18:53, 5 September 2019 (UTC)

The reason you can never see the wiffle measurement is it would require a distance range below that of light nanoseconds, but light nanoseconds only appears at distances very slightly above 1 meter, and any distance below 1 meter always says they can't throw it.--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.59.226|172.68.59.226]] 10:22, 6 September 2019 (UTC)

I found with further testing that if you put absurd numbers for a custom thrower with many digits for height and weight, there is a maximum possible distance which doesn't change if you change the values somewhat. Presumably due to its density, in such a condition thor's hammer returns the highest throw distances instead of the lowest (743,079 meters), second place is javelin, 3rd is gold bar, and you can't throw a ping pong ball more than 13 meters no matter what. Some other choice change from whether they are usually near the high or low end of the distances this way. For ping pong ball and tumbling coin, Thor gives the same values as these maximums, but for most others he does lower.--[[Special:Contributions/172.68.59.226|172.68.59.226]] 10:39, 6 September 2019 (UTC)
:I have now added images showing [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:2198_Throw_-_You_1_kg_throw_hammer_max_distance.PNG this maximum distance]. The other examples can be put here: [[2198:_Throw/Screen-shots#Maximum_distance]].
:I also found that the comic asks us to keep the height up to 100 m and mass up to 1000 kg. It does so in my local language which is not English. I have uploaded two images [[2198:_Throw/Screen-shots#Maximum_height_and_mass|here]]. It would be great if someone who has these messages in English could update these two images so they are with english test instead of Danish. I have translated it in the explanation. But please improve. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:50, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

== Negative and malformed inputs ==

"You" can accept negative numbers as input pasted in from elsewhere. With bizarre results like the animation freezing or a throw running forever without an answer.

Talk:2191: Conference Question

2019-08-19T17:59:35Z

172.68.174.22: Comment on "not so much of an X as a Y"

I don't know to what "Word of Power" in the title text refers. A quick Google revealed something from Skyrim and something from D&D, but I have the feeling there must surely be a more original source for it, even if it is just a common term in folklore or something. [[User:Pureawes0me|Pureawes0me]] ([[User talk:Pureawes0me|talk]]) 07:45, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

: I think it means "magic word". The next step, "Unforgivable Curse", is from Harry Potter; a magic spell against someone that will get you jail time. (C. S. Lewis had an apocalyptic option, the "{{w|Deplorable Word}}", which killed every living person except the speaker) So Harry Potter's schoolteacher demonstrates the Unforgivables on spiders... and on students. (You find out why.) Also I think the title text is the platform speaker's response to Beret Guy. rja.carnegie@gmail.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.183|162.158.158.183]] 09:12, 19 August 2019 (UTC) [[User:WhiteDragon|WhiteDragon]] ([[User talk:WhiteDragon|talk]]) 13:51, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

:: Yeah, I understand the "Unforgivable Curse" part - it's more "Word of Power" I'm struggling with. I agree that the title text could potentially be a response by the speaker, and I've updated the page to reflect this. [[User:Pureawes0me|Pureawes0me]] ([[User talk:Pureawes0me|talk]]) 10:20, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

::: It's from tabletop roleplaying games; [https://dungeonsdragons.fandom.com/wiki/Power_word some of the earliest high level spells from the original edition of Dungeons and Dragons were "Power Word Kill," "Power Word Blind," and "Power Word Stun."] These spells have been carried forward into newer editions where they are extremely unpopular because they were designed for campaigns when most monsters had a tiny fraction of the number of hit points typical today, and unlike essentially all of the fifth edition spells, they don't do anything when they don't work, and they don't work based on facts which are theoretically unknowable to the players. So, they kind of have a reputation of the worst high level spells, and are sometimes included in magic items which turn out to be, well, like fruitcake, if you know what I mean. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.134|172.69.22.134]] 11:36, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

One thing I feel needs to be said is that this behavior belies a lack of linguistic skill, because any statement can always be phrased in the form of a question, e.g, most easily, "Do you agree that _______?" Or by asking about the details of the comment about which the commenter is most interested in emphasizing or soliciting a response. That this kind of thing happens among advanced academics belies how narcissistic and tone-deaf even otherwise intelligent people can often be. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.34|162.158.255.34]] 12:20, 19 August 2019 (UTC)
:Similar to how the comic ends in a question? I think your statement is part of the joke. Less of a statement, and more of an utterance. [[User:OhFFS|OhFFS]] ([[User talk:OhFFS|talk]]) 14:28, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

There is a Russian Folk Tale, among those collected by Afanasyev, called "Go I don't know where, Bring back I don't know what". In that story, the archer Andrey is given several impossible tasks by a tsar who covets his beautiful wife, the last of which is to go to I don't know where and bring back I don't know what. After journeying a vast distance and meeting his mother in law Baba Yaga, he is guided by an ancient frog across a river of fire, and is told "Over there you will find a house. Well, not so much a house as a hut. And it is not so much of a hut as a barn." This is I don't know where. So Beret Guy's intro to his statement may be a reference to this formulaic format.

Talk:2178: Expiration Date High Score

2019-07-19T17:56:12Z

172.68.174.22:

If we assume this comic is contemporary, i.e. the year she found the beans is 2019, it makes Randall's girlfriend/wife 37 years old.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.84.64|141.101.84.64]] 05:25, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
:Well... it makes Megan 37 years old. There is nothing here to strongly suggest that cueball and her are Randall and his gf/wife. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 05:54, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

When I was working at a gas station, someone brought in a propane tank which had expired in 1963 (or so). If 1963 and using this scheme, my score would be 96.6.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.251|172.69.33.251]] 06:02, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

Propane tanks do not "expire", that is they do not go bad with time, and you do not need to throw them out after the date. The date on these tanks is when they need to be inspected for damage, as mandated by Federal and state laws. If the tank passes inspection a new date in put on and you can keep using the tank (propane suppliers can legally keep refilling it.) [[User:Godzilla|Godzilla]] ([[User talk:Godzilla|talk]]) 13:40, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

: Except that it <q>must be something ''you'' purchased</q> so you can't use that one in the contest. Unless you then purchased it from whoever brought it in… I don't see any rule requiring that the item be new (or otherwise not-yet-expired) when you purchase it, so can we buy old things from other people in order to inflate our score (potentially over 100)? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.42.76|172.69.42.76]] 06:18, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
::That also circumvents the argument "we moved since 2010". If you buy the apartment with kitchen and all equipment, you also purchased the expired item... --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:20, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
:::I think that part in the title text is referring to "how did we manage to not come across all of our expired items when we moved" rather than "this item was here before me moved in". Some very disorganised people might actually pack up and move all of the items (e.g. food) in their house without first checking or even noticing if it is expired. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.64|141.101.98.64]] 10:52, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
::::That was my initial thought too, that she either did it without of noticing, or did not notice it on purpose, to at some point reach this score. But the loophole, good 'ol 42.76 brought up, put this idea up, as an alternative.--[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 10:56, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
:The rules say that the item must be something you, personally '''''purchased'''''...so did they BUY the pickles from Megan's mom? I'd want to see a receipt or something! (And if the pickles were dated to 1978, Megan (whom we've established is 37 years old was not born when the pickles were dated...so for sure, this is cheating! [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 13:36, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
::They clearly attribute the pickle score to Megan's mum, not to Megan.[[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 13:42, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
:::Yeah - that makes more sense. I had initially read it as these were pickles MADE by her mum and given to Megan - not pickles that her mum purchased. Sadly, we can't work backwards from the 2030 date that Megan needs to wait until in order to beat that score to figure out her mom's age because we don't know on what year her mum discovered the ancient pickles. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 13:48, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

There is one caveat to Megan's strategy: since the fraction (year you found item - year item expired)/(your age when you found it) converges to one as time goes on regardless whether the numerator is bigger than the denominator, as long as the item expired before the year of your birth, postponing the discovery reduces your score (considerably).

Her mom's pickles could still have had an expiration date before 1978 - according to [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sell-and-best-dates-food-are-basically-made-hard-get-rid-180950304/ this article] they were around in the 1950s and on store shelves by 1970. If they were home-canned she could also have dated them herself. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.174.22|172.68.174.22]] 17:56, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

== FOOD SCIENCE ==

''"Since then many countries introduced laws and regulations requiring companies to put expiration dates on perishable goods. In some instances this can have the negative effect of people throwing out good food by blindly following the suggested expiration date. This behaviour can incentivise companies to adjust the expiration date so that people will re-buy the products sooner."''

Since science and the truth are a big part of both xkcd.com and explainxkcd.com, I think it is important this explanation includes how/why food goes bad, and why expiration dates on jars/cans of food do not serve to protect people from eating bad food. If no one else gets to it first I'll try to type this explanation when I get a chance.

Until then I don't think the explanation should say "...many countries introduced laws and regulations requiring companies to put expiration dates on perishable goods." Although this is true, it is also true many companies put expiration on non-perishable products even through there is no law requiring them to do so. Like cosmetics and jars of pickles. [[User:Godzilla|Godzilla]] ([[User talk:Godzilla|talk]]) 13:54, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

:To be fair, many items are labelled "Best Before" or "Sell By" - implying that the food item will be edible for at least some time beyond that date. Actual expiration dates on preserved food items do seem to be rarer. There are cases of canned food items from the early 1900's still being in good shape after 100+ years - and those would not have had any expiration date. But one issue is that back then, cans were made by soldering sheets of tin together - and the lead in the solder slowly leaches into the food making it unsafe to eat even though the food itself seems well-preserved. So for potential high scores, we should look to: [http://mentalfloss.com/article/555075/11-oldest-foods-and-beverages-ever-discovered The 11 oldest foods and beverages ever discovered] - except that they'd not have any kind of formal expiration date. [[User:SteveBaker|SteveBaker]] ([[User talk:SteveBaker|talk]]) 14:10, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

The legal requirements of "expiration dates" for food are less stringent than many believe. In the USA, under FDA regulations, only baby formula cannot legally be sold after its expiration date. Wording like "use by" and "sell by" is not legally binding... more like "guidelines", as Capt. Barbossa would say. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.64|172.68.34.64]] 15:57, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

I think the point that needs to be made in the explanation is both the items in the comic (a can of beans and a jar of pickles) do not go bad with time but in fact remain edible indefinitely.

Food going bad, in the sense that it will make you sick if you eat it, is most often caused by harmful bacteria growing in the food. Less often caused by fungi or yeast growing in the food and creating a poisonous substance, like methanol (wood alcohol.) The process of canning food involves boiling it to kill all possible pathogens, then sealing it in a can/jar while the food is still hot, with no air bubble. As long as this process is done correctly, as long as the jar lid has an air tight seal, and as long at the can is not punctured or gets a hole rusted through, no bacteria/virus/yeast/fungi can get in and the food can not spoil. Some food may discolor over time in the jar/can, or the texture may change, but it can not go bad in a way that makes it unsafe to eat.

If the canning process is done incorrectly and bacteria/fungi/yeast is sealed in the can/jar, the food goes bad in a few weeks, not years. Gases given off by the decomposition process often cause the can to swell, or the normal concave jar lid to bulge upwards. Sometimes the internal gas pressure is enough to burst the can/jar, as used to happen to people who canned at home using mason jars. If it does not burst, you are still going the know the food has gone bad the minute you open the can/jar, even without looking inside.

The above facts are more important then who/how/why expiration dates get put on which products. [[User:Godzilla|Godzilla]] ([[User talk:Godzilla|talk]]) 17:13, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2177: Gastroenterology

2019-07-17T17:29:05Z

172.68.174.22:

I hope they are not eating italian, you never know what might happen if pasta and antipasta meet. [[User:Arachrah|Arachrah]] ([[User talk:Arachrah|talk]]) 16:23, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
: Yea I figure this is a matter / anti-matter joke. [[User:Cgrimes85|Cgrimes85]] ([[User talk:Cgrimes85|talk]]) 16:55, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

Current transcript says "Cueball" is the second character in the first and fifth panels. I don't think that's usually how it's done for a character wearing a hat, so I was thinking he should instead be named something like "Beanie Guy" or similar. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 17:21, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

Saying the final panel is a lie is just one possibility. The 5th panel below can potentially mean the "reality", as opposed to the 4 panels above that's a fantasy/joke. Almost all jobs have this "what people think I do" and "what I really do" gap.
Another possibility: I thought I saw in old cop/secret agent movies a common joke is when a character gets into a lot of action - and thus cause a lot of trouble - that person will need to write a lot of paperwork for the damage caused. Then the character will say "this job is boring. Lots of paperwork." Sorry I can't find an example right now but I seemed to remember seeing the joke multiple times.

Talk:2169: Predictive Models

2019-07-04T03:09:15Z

172.68.174.22: /* Social media has been used in revolutions */ new section

If you click on the comic, it opens a page with error 404. Looking at the URL, it says "At the July 28th meeting", which I assume is the prediction result to the title text suggesting that they will be 1 month late. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.174|162.158.106.174]] 17:13, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

: Fixsed it, my years of mediawiki knowledge have finally come to use. [[User:Iggyvolz|Iggyvolz]] ([[User talk:Iggyvolz|talk]])

In the HTML tag for the link (the <a> tag surrounding the comic image) after the link it says "cancel the meeting! our cover is blown" [[User:Everlastingwonder|Everlastingwonder]] ([[User talk:Everlastingwonder|talk]]) 17:21, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

In the [https://m.xkcd.com/2169/ mobile version], you can read «See also: [AT THE JULY 28TH MEETING][tab] "Cancel the meeting! Our cover is blown."» It leads to a 404, like the other examples in the comments here. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.44.136|172.69.44.136]] 17:31, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

This looks a whole lot like Gmail's [https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/05/smart-compose-using-neural-networks-to.html Smart Compose] [[Special:Contributions/172.68.206.76|172.68.206.76]]

Today GMail actually predicted the beginning of my mail correctly. I typed literally zero characters and it already knew how to continue. In the future, we won't even have to upload our brains to a computer, a backup will already be available there automatically. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 21:32, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

Not a backup, a simulation. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.184|108.162.219.184]] 04:46, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

: If you can't tell the difference, does it matter? [[Special:Contributions/173.245.48.147|173.245.48.147]] 17:04, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

On my Mac the title text only shows "WE WILL ARREST THE REVOLUTION MEMBERS" while on my iPad (where you long press to see title texts) long pressing only shows the link. Weird. Also someone remind me to check the link again on July 28. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 13:10, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

: On my Ubuntu system, both Firefox and Chrome display "WE WILL ARREST THE REVOLUTION MEMBERS" as the title text and "<nowiki>https://xkcd.com/[AT THE JULY 28TH MEETING][tab]</nowiki>" as the link target, which is also what's in the HTML source. Additionally, the HTML source is malformed, with quotes inside quotes in the href attribute. - [[User:Linneris|Linneris]] ([[User talk:Linneris|talk]]) 14:37, 29 June 2019 (UTC)
::Malformed. Precisely! I think there was a glitch while the comic was uploaded, which used the title text as a link in addition to as the title text. It didn't include the last part due to the quotes. It will be either fixed or legitimate, or at least make the href a little nicer. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 21:24, 29 June 2019 (UTC)
:::Actually... Looking at the comic again (for the first time on my PC), I would like to rethink that. I think this is Randall's method of demonstrating the [tab]; clicking and looking at the URL. [EDIT] Man, the more I think, the weirder it gets. Maybe it's about how sometimes you can find the information on the client side in the code where it should be hidden? I don't know anymore. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 21:27, 29 June 2019 (UTC)
::When you look at the source of [https://xkcd.com/2169/%5BAT%20THE%20JULY%2028TH%20MEETING%5D%5Btab%5D that 404 page], you can see six HTML comments with the content ''a padding to disable MSIE and Chrome friendly error page''. This is to prevent MSIE and Chrome from displaying "helpful" proprietary error pages. If you change the link in the slightest, you will also get a 404 page, but without these comments. I assume that either this was a glitch (intended or unintended) and this particular 404 page was modified so that everyone can see that the authors are aware of it, *or* it's a hint pointing to somewhere else. A rabbit hole maybe? I would like the latter to be true, but I haven't found anything.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.168|162.158.90.168]] 22:42, 29 June 2019 (UTC)
:::Not for me. I see the same tiny Nginx 404 page with the same HTML source as any other 404 page due to invalid link on xkcd.com. - [[User:Linneris|Linneris]] ([[User talk:Linneris|talk]]) 07:14, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

This reminds me of that time where via data analytics on things like shopping habits, [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html Target figured out that a teen girl was pregnant before her father did]. [[User:Ahiijny|Ahiijny]] ([[User talk:Ahiijny|talk]]) 06:42, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

I tried this on google, and got "we will arrest chamisa" and "the meeting will be in room 27" and "our next meeting will be at 3 p.m. on wednesday". Any more? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.59.214|162.158.59.214]] 19:16, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

I decided to see what a more sophisticated predictive model would do, so I plugged it into Talk to Transformer. The output: "Long live the revolution. Our next meeting will be at 10 a.m. on December 14 at the Cressey Building, 1636 S. Second St. Please invite your friends, family, and coworkers! For those interested in donating to the cause, please contact:" I'm legitimately impressed. [[User:Arcorann|Arcorann]] ([[User talk:Arcorann|talk]]) 01:03, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Thinking about predictive text, in combination with the advice on the futility of making people change their passwords frequently, perhaps systems which require people to change their passwords could be more helpful by observing the pattern the user is using, and suggesting what the next password should be. [https://www.troyhunt.com/passwords-evolved-authentication-guidance-for-the-modern-era/ Passwords Evolved: Authentication Guidance for the Modern Era] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.216|162.158.106.216]] 20:05, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

This paragraph was in the explanation, however the cited source gives no information about how the private correspondence was obtained, and no suggestion that the privacy of the communication channel was compromised. (The most obvious way that such information would be obtained is that somebody who was party to the communication made it available.) I moved it here in case somebody has sources to show that it was a breach of security.
"As humanity adapts to a digital world, people are finding that their digital communications provide the illusion of confidentiality, with damaging results when the information leaks out. Real-life examples include a [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36391957 2016 British trainee doctor strike], where a technically-secure WhatsApp group leaked information to the press." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.220|108.162.245.220]] 05:18, 3 July 2019 (UTC)

== Social media has been used in revolutions ==

Once revolutions achieve critical mass, they often communicate on more insecure channels. Many of the Arab Spring revolutions involved spread through Twitter. Broadly speaking the security vs contagiousness issues often cause disagreement among revolutionaries.

I.E. Trotskyist/Stalinist disagreements over "Permanent revolution" (expansionist) vs "Socialism in one country" (security and development of the USSR without spending all available surplus on spreading communism directly).

1953: The History of Unicode

2018-02-10T01:29:18Z

172.68.174.22:

{{comic
| number = 1953
| date = February 9, 2018
| title = The History of Unicode
| image = the_history_of_unicode.png
| titletext = 2048: "Great news for Maine—we're once again an independent state!!! Thanks, @unicode, for ruling in our favor and sending troops to end New Hampshire's annexation. 🙏🚁🎖️"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by XEROX - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

An {{w|character encoding|encoding of a character set}} is a mapping from characters to numbers. For example, the letter "A" might be represented by the value 65.
{{w|Unicode}} was planned as a way of representing the various characters used in the world's languages in a single encoding. Prior to Unicode, each script had its own character set. Different characters would be represented by the same value. Some languages, such as Japanese, had several inconsistent character encodings, so before people could send text, they would have to have agreed which character set to use. Unicode attempts to solve this by providing for a single character encoding for all the worlds languages. Unicode is run by {{w|Unicode Consortium|a consortium}} of major technology companies and stakeholders.

The founders of Unicode include {{w|Joe Becker (Unicode)|Joe Becker}}, who worked for Xerox in the 1980s. He wears a beard and may be the character featured in the first and third panels.

New characters have continued to be added, and recently many "{{w|emoji}}" (picture characters) have been added to Unicode. One recently added emoji is the "[https://emojipedia.org/lobster/ Lobster emoji]". It was approved as part of Unicode 11, for release in 2018.

This is supposedly important for the US State of {{w|Maine}}, which has a large {{w|lobster}} fishing industry. The second panel quotes [https://twitter.com/SenAngusKing/status/961331752718557184 an actual tweet] by a Senator from Maine, {{w|Angus King}}. The tweet is signed using [https://emojipedia.org/cow-face/ 🐮 cow face emoji] (an angus is a bovine) and [https://emojipedia.org/crown/ 👑 Crown emoji], which stands for "king".

The central role of Unicode in setting standards for emoji was not foreseen by the consortium's founders. The disconnect between the usual boring tasks and emoji has been a source of amusement for many.

The title text imagines that Unicode will gain other unexpected roles in the next 30 years. In particular it acts as an international armed force, capable of intervening in military disputes, such as an annexation of Maine by its neighbour, New Hampshire. The title text ends with three Unicode emoji, "🙏" code point 1F64F "PERSON WITH FOLDED HANDS", "🚁" code point 1F681 "HELICOPTER", and "🎖" code point 1F396 "MILITARY MEDAL", suggesting that they are thanking them for their effort in the war.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[1988:]
:[A bearded man holds a document labeled "Unicode".]
:Bearded man: My "Unicode" standard should help reduce problems caused by incompatible binary text encodings.

:[2018:]
:[A tweet from Twitter is shown. To the left of Senator Angus King's name is his avatar (a face with a mustache) and to the right is the blue checkmark used by Twitter to signify a verified user.]
:Senator Angus King‏
:@SenAngusKing
:Great news for Maine - we're getting a lobster emoji!!! Thanks to @unicode for recognizing the impact of this critical crustacean, in Maine and across the country.
:Yours truly,
:Senator 🐮👑
:2/7/18 3:12 PM

:[Cueball and the bearded man are looking at a wall with the Unicode standard, labeled "1988", and Senator King's tweet, labeled "2018", posted on it.]
:Cueball: Wait, what happened in those thirty years?
:Bearded man: ''Things got a little weird, okay?''

[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Emoji]]
[[Category:Unicode]]

==Trivia==
*Initial version of the comic had "1998" in panel 3 instead of "1988" as shown in panel 1. This was fixed later.

*Ironically, [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1953:_The_History_of_Unicode&oldid=152168 the first version of this article] (automatically generated by a bot) had problems with emoji encoding.

*The scenario in the title text isn't ''quite'' as far-fetched as it sounds. Maine and New Hampshire were for many years involved in border disputes, primarily over [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_v._Maine fishing rights] and whether [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seavey%27s_Island Seavey Island,] located in the middle of the river that forms the border of the two states, was part of Maine or New Hampshire. The latter issue [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piscataqua_River_border_dispute was not settled until 2002]. Neither dispute ever quite rose to the level of a full-on shooting war but [http://nhpr.org/post/legacy-nh-maine-lobster-war-and-why-it-may-wage#stream/0 they got surprisingly close].

{{comic discussion}}

1936: Desert Golfing

2018-01-02T18:27:33Z

172.68.174.22: /* Explanation */ The TVTropes link to "not hyperbole" is annoying, pointless, and adds nothing to the explanation.

{{comic
| number = 1936
| date = January 1, 2018
| title = Desert Golfing
| image = desert_golfing.png
| titletext = I just want to stay up long enough to watch the ball drop into the hole number 2018.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|May need some more work. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A common joke surrounding the turn of the New Year is to make a comment about "next year" on New Year's Eve or "last year" on New Year's Day. While technically correct, there is a snarky humor derived from making observations about the span of years when the reality has been more along a span of days or even, as in this comic, only a few hours.

In this, second of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] in a row, with this one being released on New Year's Day 2018, [[Cueball]] observes that he has [[1475|technically]] "been playing ''{{w|Desert Golfing}}'' nonstop since late 2017". Desert Golfing is a game that takes place in an endless side-scrolling desert, where the player can shoot a golf ball using a one finger swipe to determine direction and power. The entirety of the "golf course" is made of sand, making the physics of the golf ball more difficult to predict and control, as if from a bunker. After reaching a hole, the game automatically generates a completely random new course, making the game go on forever, and the score is purely dependent on how long you play the game.

Although Cueball's statement could be taken to mean he has devoted his waking hours to the game, the clock on the wall reveals both the truth of his comment and that he is not exaggerating. While he has only been playing the game for two and a half hours, give or take, those two-and-a-half hours started at about 11:10 PM on December 31st, meaning that it is presently January 1st and he has indeed been playing the game "nonstop since late 2017" (assuming he has not taken a break to eat or use the facilities).

Someone off-panel acknowledges the joke by saying that he should "take a break in 2018", and Cueballs declares it is his New Year's resolution to go to bed. This is not a typical New Year's resolution, as most resolutions is about something you need to change in your life from last year, and going to bed (or at least sleeping) is not something you would have been able to avoid for a whole year. New Year's resolutions have been mentioned before, the first time in [[1154: Resolution]], where the tradition of {{w|New Year's resolutions}} is the entire joke.

The title text states that the only reason Cueball has stayed up to play Desert Golfing is to watch the ball drop into hole number 2018, another reference to the New Year. The turn of the New Year is celebrated in certain places by the dropping of a ball; Cueball takes this literally, and tries to drop his (golf) ball to signify the beginning of 2018.

==Transcript==
:[A analog clock, without any numbers, showing 11:12 hangs on the wall above and to the left of Cueball who is sitting on his couch leaning on the left arm rest, feeds up in the couch. He is holding his smart phone horizontally and the screen is clearly brown. Above him is a large brown bubble with a brown line going down to the screen of the smartphone, thus showing that he is playing Desert Golfing. The sky is light brown, the sand below is dark brown, the golf ball is white and is followed by a white line showing its trajectory towards the gray flag stick with a yellow flag on it, which is to the right of the screen. The hole is just before the flag stick, an indentation in the sand.]

:[The clock is now showing 12:00 and Cueball is now sitting straight upright on the couch, the screen display above him shows that he continues to play, but now on a new golf hole with different contours. The trajectory of the ball is much more complicated than before, and it seems he has had to play a very special loop shot to get out of a deep pit.]

:[The clock is showing 12:34 as Cueball once again sits as in the first panel, but now towards the right armrest instead and he is almost lying down with his head on the rest. Once again the screen is visible and brown, and above him it is shown that the hole has changed again.]

:[The clock is showing 1:47 when Cueball, now sitting up against the right armrest, finally speaks while continuing to play, with the brown screen visible, as he holds it on his knees, but the screen display is not shown. An off-panel voice answers him from the right.]
:Cueball: Technically, I've been playing ''Desert Golfing'' nonstop since late 2017.
:Off-panel voice: Might want to take a break sometime in 2018.
:Cueball: Yeah, my New Year's resolution is to go to bed.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sport]]
[[Category:Video games]]

1890: What to Bring

2017-09-15T18:50:12Z

172.68.174.22: Random unnecessary political references are bad enough, but bringing up Bill Maher is just embarrassing. Has he even explicitly used the idiom?

{{comic
| number = 1890
| date = September 15, 2017
| title = What to Bring
| image = what_to_bring.png
| titletext = I always figured you should never bring a gun to a gun fight because then you'll be part of a gun fight.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Bare necessities, could use elaboration. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

A table based on variations of the phrase "never bring a knife to a gun fight", an idiom usually attributed to either {{w|Elmer Keith}} or ''{{w|The Untouchables (film)|The Untouchables}}''. The colors indicate a Yes (green) or No (red) answer.

The third and fourth columns describe fighting (extinguishing) two types of fires -- wood and oil. Neither should be battled with knives or guns.{{Citation needed}}

The last column of the table is based on reactions to an {{w|Class B fire|oil fire}}, which should be extinguished by removing the oxygen (such as by covering it with a lid). Attempting to apply water to an oil fire will result in a very large, dangerous flame.

The point of the this comic may be in the title text. There is a phrase in American English, "to bring a knife to a gun fight," which means "to be so naive as to be unprepared." Randall may be commenting on the fact that by being adequately armed, one contributes to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_escalation conflict escalation]. The green squares in the comic are all in diagonal except for "bringing a gun to a knife fight," which is clearly marked as being unreasonable in the illustration. The two last green squares are about putting ''out'' a fire, not starting a conflict. While the comic is vague and subject to interpretation, it is possible that Randall may be subtly giving his opining about the virtues of restraint.

{| class="wikitable"
! Should you bring ... to ...
! scope="col"| a knife fight
! scope="col"| a gun fight
! scope="col"| a wood fire
! scope="col"| an oil fire
|-
! scope="row"| a knife
| Yes. If you bring a knife to a knife fight, you will be evenly matched with your opponent.
| No. If you bring a knife to a gunfight, you will be at a perilous disadvantage.
| No. Attempting to fight a wood fire with a knife will lead to you being burned.
| No. Attempting to fight an oil fire will lead to you being burned, in addition to causing metallic scrapes.
|-
! scope="row"| a gun
| Yes. Bringing a gun to a knife fight will leave your opponent at a perilous disadvantage.
| Yes*. Bringing a gun to a gunfight will leave you {{w|Mexican standoff|evenly matched with your opponent}}.
| colspan="2"| No. Shooting either a wood or an oil fire is an ineffective way of extinguishing them.{{Citation needed}}
|-
! scope="row"| water
| colspan="2"| No. Splashing either a knife-wielder or a gunman† with water will serve only to agitate your opponent.
| Yes. Wood fires are best extinguished with a well-aimed splash of water.
| No! Pouring water on an oil fire is notorious for creating huge fireballs, aggravating the situation even more.
|-
! scope="row"| a lid
| colspan="2"| No. Attempting to put a lid on the head of a knife-wielder or gunman will probably not help matters, as it may only serve to agitate said knife-wielder. There's a possibility that your attacker may be momentarily stunned by the surrealism of the situation, but even that will only buy you about a ten-foot running start. Though a metal lid with the right sort of handle could be a buckler used as a defence.
| No. Trying to put out a wood fire with a lid would require a lid bigger than can possibly be considered 'brought with'.
| Yes. An oil fire is best extinguished by cutting it off from oxygen; stovetop oil fires generally spawn in cooking pans, which often come with lids suited to making an airtight seal.
|}

* While the chart states you should bring a gun to a gun fight, the title text makes the observation that bringing a gun to a gunfight might just raise your status from 'inconsequential bystander' to 'combatant'. So perhaps you shouldn't bring a gun to a gun fight if not bringing one is a way to avoid being considered part of the fight. It probably all depends on why there is a gun fight to begin with, and why you are choosing to go to it, with or without a gun (or knife or water or lid).

† This may actually work with some older guns, if you use enough water, due to the fact that their gunpowder won't explode after being wet.

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

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]