explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3082: Chess Position

2025-04-30T08:30:15Z

172.68.186.132: /* Explanation */ Unlikely he is a newer player, or he wouldn't recognise the blunders, or the positions resulting as being odd.

{{comic
| number = 3082
| date = April 28, 2025
| title = Chess Position
| image = chess position 2x.png
| imagesize = 740x598px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's important to learn the moves that take you into the vortex, but it's best not to study vortex itself too closely. Even grandmasters who have built up a tolerance lose the ability to play for a few hours after studying it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The various paragraphs are not organised and information about the same joke is spread across the explanation. Make the explanation more cohesive. Also, might need to reduce the focus on describing the scene and focus more on explaining the jokes.}}

[[Cueball]] talks to [[Ponytail]] about a chess game he had last week against [[Knit Cap]]. After Cueball made a {{w|blunder (chess)|blunder}}, a critically bad mistake which frequently changes the course of the game, both of them quickly made inaccurate moves, probably rated as a "{{w|Blunder (chess)|blunder}}", "mistake", or "miss", leading to an odd configuration of the chess pieces. Blunders that are not taken advantage of can lead to this effect for less experienced players.

The rest of this comic becomes absurd, as Cueball then describes himself and Knit Cap descending into a fantasy world "on a deep branch of the game tree." Chess strategy is commonly described in terms of following a {{w|decision tree}} or {{w|game tree}}, as one usually needs to calculate multiple moves ahead when planning out what move to play. As a chess game progresses, the {{w|phase space}} of possible positions increases wildly, though this will include many more configurations than are typically seen or anticipated by players. Rarely, an expert player may 'discover' a truly clever {{w|Glossary of chess#theoretical novelty|novel opening}}, but centuries of recorded gameplay has explored many of the possible moves, both good and not so good, that are often recognized by experienced students of the game as common stepping-stones on the way to possible victory (or frequent traps that send the unwary down the road to defeat). Both precise game-board states and more general variations may be easily recognized by an experienced player, and even be {{w|Checkmate pattern|given a name}} by the player community as a whole.

However, it seems that Cueball and Knit Cap each made a sequence of seemingly obvious 'blunders' that neither opponent then took advantage of, reaching a board configuration that Cueball had never even anticipated happening. In some apparently mystical (or at least psychological) manner, by travelling such an unlikely and unfamiliar branch of the player/board game-space, the precise positioning of pieces combined with the state of mind that Cueball had developed created the impression of literally entering a mythical garden, with time even stopping. In chess, you want pieces to be in a position to attack other pieces while at the same time being protected by other pieces, and typically you'd have some pieces on the offense and some playing defense and some doing both. It seems that in this board configuration, somehow all the pieces ended up both in offensive attack positions able to attack every other piece on the board while at the same time each one was being protected by against attack by their other pieces. It was this perfect balance of position and protection that led to the time distortion and the magical garden.

Ponytail reacts nonchalantly to this story, as she says this is a common scenario for new players, and that there even is a defined name for it: the Kasparov Vortex Gambit. {{w|Garry Kasparov}} is a Russian chess grandmaster and former world champion. He was the number-one rated chess player from 1984 to 2005, and is considered one of the greatest chess players of all past time, if not ''the'' greatest. A {{w|gambit (chess)|gambit}} refers to a chess opening in which a player sacrifices material with the aim of achieving a subsequent positional advantage. This name seems to indicate that Kasparov himself either discovered/’invented’ or made popular this "gambit" to suck new players into a "vortex" and trap them from getting out. This is not the case, but, within the xkcd universe, he has performed an equally absurd gambit (also named after himself) in [[2936: Exponential Growth]].

Ponytail's advice to Cueball after he "recovers" from the disillusionment of the "vortex" is that she can teach him how to defend against the attack, by using the "f pawn". The f-pawn is the pawn that begins on the "f-file" (the 6th vertical column of the chessboard from white's perspective). The pawn would start either on f2 (sixth column, second row) for the white player or f7 (sixth column, seventh row) for black. The fact that an apparent distortion in the fabric of space can be countered with ''a single pawn'' just adds to the absurdity of the situation. Equally absurd is the fact that moving the f-pawn in early game, due to its starting position relative to the starting position of the king, is itself usually a blunder that exposes the king to a diagonal attack.

In the title text, Ponytail continues with her advice, telling Cueball that he needs to understand how the vortex can be entered, but not to study the actual vortex. It appears that if you spend too much time in the vortex focusing on it, you will [[356: Nerd Sniping|lose your ability]] to play chess. Even experienced players such as grandmasters who have build up some kind of tolerance against the effect of the vortex, lose their chess abilities for a few hours after studying the vortex. Thus being able to get your opponent into the vortex, without getting caught in it yourself, should win you the game, since they would lose their ability to play chess.

==Transcript==
:[In the first panel, Cueball is walking in from the left, while talking to Ponytail.]
:Cueball: Something odd happened to me last week in a game at the chess club.

:[Cueball is playing a game of chess against Knit Cap.]
:[Caption above frame:]
:I moved, then instantly realized I'd blundered. But my opponent didn't notice and made a weird move.
:I got rattled and moved almost randomly, then I think we both panicked and made a couple of nonsensical moves, rapid-fire.

:[Zoomed in on Cueball, with three question marks above his head]
:I don't know how it happened, but suddenly I realized I was staring at an indescribably strange board position.

:[Cueball is talking to Ponytail.]
:Cueball: I've never seen anything like it. It seemed like every move attacked every piece, yet every piece was also protected. Pieces refracted through crystalline pawn structures.
:Cueball: The game clock slowed and then stopped.

:[Cueball and Knit Cap are floating in a complex five-fold symmetrical plant-like pattern of "game tree branches".]
:[Caption above the frame]
:It didn't even feel like we were playing chess. We had stumbled into a magical garden tucked away on a deep branch of the game tree.

:[Cueball is talking to Ponytail.]
:Cueball: I don't remember how the game ended, if it did.
:Cueball: I don't remember how I got home.
:Cueball: It's all a blur.

:[Close-up of Cueball's head.]
:Cueball: I've spent all week trying to reconstruct the position and can't.
:Cueball: It's consuming me.
:Cueball: I don't want to play chess. I just want to return to that garden.
:Cueball: Does... any of this make sense to you?

:[Cueball is standing with hands on face surprised as Ponytail talks with him.]
:Ponytail: Yeah, that's the Kasparov Vortex Gambit. Common trap for new players.
:Cueball: ''What?!''
:Ponytail: Once you recover I'll show you how to block it with the f pawn.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Chess]]

Talk:1031: s/keyboard/leopard/

2025-03-24T21:30:41Z

172.68.186.132: /* Trivia section makes no sense */

My mechanical leopard's been working out for me, just the feeling of my fingers hitting it is amazing. '''[[User:Davidy22|Davidy22]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 08:35, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Why does it say "s/keyboard/leopard/" in the url of this page, but title of this comic is "s/leopard/leopard/"?[[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 17:57, 15 April 2013 (UTC)
:Now I see "s/leopard/leopard/" twice in my previous comment. I forgot that I have an extension installed that was inspired by this comic. :) [[User:DiEvAl|DiEvAl]] ([[User talk:DiEvAl|talk]]) 18:00, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I swear I read every instance of leopard as keyboard. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.89|173.245.54.89]] 23:33, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

Shouldn't the title of the comic end in "g" since it's a global replace, like "s/keyboard/leopard/g"? [[User:Kroq-gar78|Kroq-gar78]] ([[User talk:Kroq-gar78|talk]]) 18:56, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
:I have no idea, but I do know that the current title matches the one on xkcd. We're not changing it, even if there was an error. [[User:NealCruco|NealCruco]] ([[User talk:NealCruco|talk]]) 03:50, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

:I just bought my new leopard today! It's working great, but it's a bit hard to use. Is there such a thing as a leopard-repair shop? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.47|108.162.219.47]] 21:03, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
some[http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-leopards-keypads] leopards even have touch screens[[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.45|108.162.216.45]] 05:58, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

You sure it's not a sed command? Regexps just matches! [[Special:Contributions/108.162.215.97|108.162.215.97]] 13:44, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
:actually, it's an ed command.[[User:Taibhse|Taibhse]] ([[User talk:Taibhse|talk]]) 12:10, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

If the first user's leopard now produces language in Chinese, why is the message in English? {{unsigned ip|108.162.250.155}}
:This is more like a joke to me (as a Chinese) because there isn't a real Chinese leopard as far as I'm concerned... Chinese characters are usually typed using an IME and a standard English leopard. We type in the pronunciation romanized and select from a list of characters with the same pronunciation. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.164|162.158.255.164]] 03:28, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

The first add-on looks like google translate. {{unsigned ip|108.162.222.159}}

KEYBOARD. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.250.162|108.162.250.162]] 06:58, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

I have an extension that does quite this, so I have no idea who is actually saying "leopard". [[User:Cody Hackins|Cody Hackins]] ([[User talk:Cody Hackins|talk]]) 01:37, 9 March 2016 (UTC)
: Everyone except the person right above you (in allcaps) is just saying leopard. Here. Does this work? K E Y B O A R D?[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.115|108.162.245.115]] 21:55, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

The first extension is Translate; the third is Wolfram|Alpha. [[User:Papayaman1000|Papayaman1000]] ([[User talk:Papayaman1000|talk]]) 07:15, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

As far as I know, 's/old/new/' only replaces the first instance of 'old' with 'new'. One would gace to use the g flag after the last slash to enable replacement of all instances of 'old'
[[Special:Contributions/141.101.91.223|141.101.91.223]] 23:42, 28 June 2016 (UTC)

My leopard doesn't seems to be working well since I didn't insert my leopard's USB port into my computer.Boeing-787lover 14:03, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

Can anyone think of a regex replacement someone might want to do that would be reasonably typo'd into s/keyboard/leopard/g? It's been bugging me since the comic came out. [[User:Undergroundmonorail|Undergroundmonorail]] ([[User talk:Undergroundmonorail|talk]]) 19:01, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
:probably keopard->leopard which has been typoed from "keopard" into keyboard [[User:XoX-TordSenpai-XoX|-Lance]] ([[User talk:XoX-TordSenpai-XoX|talk]]) 00:48, 14 March 2024 (UTC)

No speculation on Leopard being a reference to the Apple codename? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.161|108.162.238.161]] 15:28, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

== Trivia section makes no sense ==

The current trivia section:
When first posted, the title was written with lowercase characters, which Randall never uses. This was later changed to small caps.
... is very unclear and also lacks citations. I don't know what it means. Additionally, the original trivia section was different:
When first posted, the title was typo'd to "s/keyboard/leopard" which would have failed had it actually been typed as a substitution regex.}}

What does it mean? Was the title different, the font, both? Needs web archive links. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:42, 24 March 2025 (UTC)
:...seriously? And waiting for you to change that from a section header to a definition-header, too. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.132|172.68.186.132]] 21:30, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

2396: Wonder Woman 1984

2025-03-19T20:58:30Z

172.68.186.132: /* Explanation */ There's no good way to do this punctuation, BTW, but maybe this is less wrong.

{{comic
| number = 2396
| date = December 9, 2020
| title = Wonder Woman 1984
| image = wonder_woman_1984.png
| titletext = 'Wait, why would you think a movie set in 1984 would do drive-ins as a retro promotion?' 'You know, 80s stuff. Drive-in movies. Britney Spears doing the hustle. Elvis going on Ed Sullivan and showing off his pog collection.' 'What year were you born, again?'
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is another in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.

Ponytail, who was eager to see ''{{w|Wonder Woman 1984}}'', the 2019 sequel to the acclaimed 2017 ''{{w|Wonder Woman (2017 film)|Wonder Woman}}'' film, decided to block all news media leading up to the film, to avoid {{w|Spoiler (media)|spoilers}}. Avoiding spoilers is a common practice for people who do not wish to be "spoiled" by reading or hearing any plot points of the film, because they want to be immersed in the movie when watching it for the first time, by not being able to predict any plot twists before they occur. Many early reviewers may inadvertently give away key parts of the film, which may ruin the experience for some watchers, and story elements may be leaked by inside sources, either accidentally or deliberately.

However, there have been many delays for release of the film, in part because of the [[:Category:COVID-19|COVID-19 pandemic]] in the spring of 2020. The film was originally delayed from November 1, 2019 to June 5, 2020 to allow more time for production, and then, after the pandemic struck, was pushed to August 14, 2020, then October 2, 2020, before it was finally moved to December 25, 2020. The film studio announced a simultaneous release of the film in theaters and also on streaming platform {{w|HBO Max}}.

Absurdly, Ponytail apparently continued to block news sites after the delays, and so has not read ''any'' news in over a year, even news unrelated to movies. Because of this, she is apparently totally unaware of the entire pandemic, as well as more predictable major news items like the 2020 United States presidential election. This is particularly absurd, because these events were influential enough that it would be difficult or impossible to avoid awareness, even with no media exposure. They have been common topics of conversation, not to mention face-masks and other public health-control measures have now become ubiquitous, and election campaign signs and bumper stickers were common sights in the lead-up to November.

How the release date being postponed (twice) did not convince Ponytail to find out why, therefore becoming aware of the pandemic with its associated lockdown and public health-control, is a question that is left unanswered. Her confusion as to why her movie is now being shown at a {{w|drive-in theater}} is a sign that she's unaware of COVID-19. Drive-in theaters have been seen as a safer option than indoor movie theaters during the pandemic.

Cueball tries to warn her about the ongoing pandemic, but in an effort to avoid spoilers, she silences him. This may imply that in her wildly excessive effort to avoid spoilers, she's avoided leaving her home and talking to people, which could explain her exceptional level of disconnection from current events. Cueball then tells her to wear a mask, but she is still confused. Ponytail says that she will dress up in costume as Wonder Woman, who is traditionally shown wearing a {{w|tiara}} but not a mask (unlike Batman or many other comic characters, although [[2367: Masks|efficiency of their masks]] still varies wildly in regards to COVID-19 protection).

The title text expands on Ponytail's speculation that the use of the drive-in theaters is a "retro promotion," presumably because drive-ins and the '80s setting of the movie are now both considered to be retro in 2020. However, they are not associated with the same period; drive-in theaters in America had their heyday in the 1950s and '60s, and were in rapid decline by the '80s. Ponytail further demonstrates her misunderstanding of history by mentioning several other things which she wrongly believes are from the '80s. {{w|Britney Spears}} is a singer who was popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. {{w|Hustle (dance)|The Hustle}} was a disco dance popular in the mid-1970s. {{w|Pogs}} under that name peaked in the mid-1990s. {{w|Elvis}}'s appearance on the ''{{w|Ed Sullivan Show}}'' - a pivotal moment in American pop culture - occurred on September 9, 1956. (''The Ed Sullivan Show'' went off the air in 1971, Ed Sullivan died in 1974, and Elvis Presley died in 1977.{{Citation needed}}) This joke concerns the phenomenon of people lumping together all time periods before their birth, which results in "retro" or "period" representations combining elements from widely different time periods. (A similar behavior is seen in [[771: Period Speech]].) Cueball points this out by asking Ponytail when she was born, implying that, if she'd actually lived through any of those time periods, she'd realize that they were distinct. If Ponytail could not remember any of these events in her childhood, an age of about 20 years can be set as an approximate upper bound for this particular character's age.

This comic is similar to [[2280: 2010 and 2020]] and [[2338: Faraday Tour]], which also involve characters who are unaware of the COVID-19 pandemic.

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail sitting at a desk, chatting with Cueball (off-screen) on a laptop.]
:Ponytail: Just two weeks until I see ''Wonder Woman 1984'', learn who the Democratic nominee was, and find out how the election went.
:Cueball: Huh?

:[Close-up on Ponytail.]
:Ponytail: To avoid spoilers, I blocked all news sites ahead of the November 2019 release.
:Ponytail: But then they bumped the date on my ticket to June 2020, and now December 25th.
:Ponytail: It also moved to a drive-in theater? Some retro promotion, maybe.

:[Cueball on his laptop, chatting with Ponytail (off-screen) on a laptop.]
:Cueball: Wait, you haven't seen '''''any''''' news?
:Ponytail: Nope!
:Cueball: So you don't know about -
:Ponytail: '''''No spoilers!'''''

:[Back to Ponytail sitting at a desk, chatting with Cueball (off-screen) on a laptop.]
:Cueball: Okay. Just...
:Cueball: Bring a mask, in case you need to get out of the car.
:Ponytail: Oh, I'll have a full '''''costume!''''' But it's a tiara, not a mask.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:COVID-19]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

3060: Omniroll

2025-03-10T14:45:03Z

172.68.186.132: /* Explanation */ Croquette isn't on the wikipedia page - this seems to best fit the bill.

{{comic
| number = 3060
| date = March 7, 2025
| title = Omniroll
| image = omniroll_2x.png
| imagesize = 528x443px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It seems wrong that Fruit by the Foot is only sold by weight or by number of rolls.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a CHICKEN KIEV MANDARIN ROLL - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

[[Cueball]], [[Megan]], and [[White Hat]] are making a "Wikipedia Omniroll," a roll made by combining all rolls in the {{w|list of rolled foods}} into one large roll. The Latin prefix "omni-" is a combining form meaning "all" or "universal." Thus, an "Omniroll" would mean an "everything roll." The three are in the process of assembling this roll. The penultimate stage in the preparation till this moment was a "{{w|spring roll}} {{w|burrito}}" which ''probably'' means a burrito whose identifying ingredient is a spring roll (as a bean burrito is filled with refried beans), but could also mean a burrito in spring-roll form. The following step was to roll it in breadcrumbs and fry it, possibly as a part of a {{w|Rissole#Indonesia|rissole}}. Right now, they are wrapping the concoction in a {{w|cabbage roll}}. White Hat asks about the {{w|Fruit Roll-Ups}} layer, which Megan responds that it goes around the {{w|cinnamon roll}} layer.

On the wall behind them is a picture of a cross-sectional cut through the Omniroll showing each layer. There seems to be 12 labeled layers that are broad enough to be seen in this large picture. But there is also a cutout that zooms into six thin layers, that also has labels. If the drawing is to be taken at face value there are 18 different layers, and there should thus have been 18 rolled foods on the Wikipedia list when [[Randall]] made the comic; in fact there were 51. However, it is possible that the highlighted area is only for the layers they are currently preparing, and other layers are not currently shown.

All labels are unreadable, which seems like a good idea, as no-one can complain that Randall left out their favorite rolled food. Having people getting agitated over comics relating to food has happened a few times. For instance [[388: Fuck Grapefruit]] got so much reaction that Randall commented on it, as noted in the [[388:_Fuck_Grapefruit#Controversy|trivia]]. On explain xkcd the [[Talk:1534: Beer|talk page]] for [[1534: Beer]] also shows how people react when someone openly dislikes one of your favorite drinks.

Although there will be many people who love each of the mentioned rolls, not many would enjoy eating them all at once, as it would mix very different kinds of food which would be prepared very differently. Different layers would also require different treatments to prevent them spoiling, which would be difficult to achieve once they are rolled together.

The title text refers to {{w|Fruit by the Foot}}, a similar snack to Fruit Roll-Up made by the same producers. Although the name implies a per-distance measurement, Fruit by the Foot is in fact sold in boxes based upon number of rolls, with measurements on the packaging given by weight. [[Randall]] expresses his dismay at this discrepancy.

The 'omni-' prefix was earlier used in [[2653: Omnitaur]] and [[2738: Omniknot]].

In [[2123: Meta Collecting]], Cueball used Wikipedia's article "list of collectables" for his hobby.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Megan and White Hat are standing up near a table handling ingredients. Megan is working on a large roll while the other two are holding on to some strings like food going towards the roll. To the left of them is a poster on the wall showing multiple layers of a roll. There are 12 labels going around the roll starting around 10 going to just shy of 6 o'clock. They have lines going in to different layers with the first label's line going to the outer layer, the second label's line going to the third layer, the third labels line going to the second layer, but then the rest of the labels going to layers deeper and deeper ind from 4 to 12. But there is also a zoom in in the bottom left, where a square on the roll has been zoomed out and displayed just outside the roll. Six layers can been seen in this zoom in, and each of these have also been labeled with three labels on either side of the frame of the zoom in. All 18 labels are unreadable.]
:Megan: Okay, we've rolled the spring roll burrito in breadcrumbs and fried it. Now we'll wrap it in cabbage roll leaves.
:White Hat: What about the Fruit Roll-Up?
:Megan: That goes around the cinnamon roll layer.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:A Wikipedia omniroll is a cylindrical food containing one layer of every item from the Wikipedia article "List of rolled foods."

==Trivia==
*At the time the comic was published, the Wikipedia article contained 51 entries - [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_rolled_foods&oldid=1253171858 List of Rolled Foods as it was on March 7, 2025].
**The article had last been edited on October 24, 2024, but several edits were made in the hours after the comic was published, which is presumably not a coincidence.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Wikipedia]]

3059: Water Damage

2025-03-07T09:22:15Z

172.68.186.132: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3059
| date = March 5, 2025
| title = Water Damage
| image = water_damage_2x.png
| imagesize = 612x329px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Your homeowner's insurance might cover it, but be sure to check the subductible.
}}

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

Similar to [[3037: Radon]], [[Cueball]] is once again getting his home inspected by [[Ponytail]]. This time, she alerts Cueball for {{w|water damage}}, normally caused by leaky pipes or roofs. Water damage is hazardous to homes due to its ability to instigate mold and its negative impact on structural stability of the home. Instead of "regular water damage", she claims that the crust under Cueball's home suffers from water damage. The Earth's crust typically {{w|groundwater|contains water}}; she could be referring to {{w|erosion}}, which is one cause of {{w|subsidence}} and even {{w|sinkhole}}s, a concern to homeowners, but it soon becomes clear that she has different effects in mind.

Upon further investigation, Ponytail discovers that Cueball's home is near a {{w|subduction|subduction zone}}, a place where two {{w|tectonic plate}}s meet and one pushes beneath the other and descends deep into the Earth. This leads to the formation of magma as the descending plate heats up. The expulsion of fluids, originally from seawater, from hydrated materials simultaneously lowers the melting point of the rock and allows magma to rise to the surface to [https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/earth-hazards/volcanoes/how-volcanoes-form-2/ form volcanoes] as Ponytail alludes to (though does not entirely explain, making it seem that it is the water itself that is rising ''in the form'' of magma). However, there is nothing that Cueball can actually do about this.{{Citation needed}}

An example of an area with many volcanoes caused by subduction is the {{w|Ring of Fire}} along the coasts of the Pacific Ocean. In the contiguous 48 states, the {{w|Cascade Volcanoes}} of the Pacific Northwest are the result of this type of subduction.

Ponytail suggests "{{w|lithospheric}} {{w|dehumidifier}}s" as a solution, which would presumably dry out the Earth's crust, but this is not realistically possible. In waterlogged ground, {{w|continuous flight augering}} or the {{w|Pressure grouting|injection of grouting}} can assist in isolating the foundations from the surrounding {{w|water table}}, but this has little use below the {{w|pedosphere}} and near-surface rock, such as down to the base of the upper plate involved in the subduction (well below the {{w|Mohorovičić discontinuity}}, tens of kilometers down). In addition, by drying out the crust, they might {{w|Groundwater-related subsidence|cause further subsidence}} and present additional hazards to the home.

The title text is a pun making a portmanteau of ''subduction'', explained above, and the ''{{w|deductible}}'', the amount an insurance policy requires you to pay before it starts to contribute to the cost of the losses or expenses it covers. The title text may also be a critique of the [https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2791 homeowners insurance crisis] in the United States at the time of the comic's posting.

Subduction has been the topic of a few comics, see other examples in the explanation for the recent comic [[3021: Seismologists]] that mentions it in the title text.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Ponytail stands to the left of Cueball. She is looking down at a meter of some sort in one hand, and is holding a clipboard in the other hand.]
:Ponytail: The crust under your house shows signs of water damage. Is there a subduction zone nearby?
:Cueball: Uh, I think there's one off the coast.
:Ponytail: Oof. I was afraid of that.

:[Closeup on Ponytail who is pointing to a diagram of subducting faults.]
:Ponytail: Subducting hydrous minerals carry water down into the mantle, causing melting in the overlying crust. If you let this go, you'll have volcanoes everywhere.

:[Cueball, with his hand to his chin, looks at the diagram. Ponytail, holding her equipment, is standing behind him.]
:Cueball: Is there any solution?
:Ponytail: Giant lithospheric dehumidifiers. But the installation won't be cheap.
:Cueball: ''Oh no...''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Subduction]]
[[Category:Portmanteau]]

3049: Incoming Asteroid

2025-02-11T20:25:02Z

172.68.186.132: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3049
| date = February 10, 2025
| title = Incoming Asteroid
| image = incoming_asteroid_2x.png
| imagesize = 454x570px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The bottom ones are also potentially bad news for any other planets in our solar system that have been counting on Earth having a stable orbit.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an incoming bearer of bad news - More accurate readings of the log scale, and provide detailed explanations of each point on the chart (should probably be a table, as well). Also, add some acknowledgement of the title-text. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic may be inspired by the recent discovery of asteroid {{w|2024 YR4|2024 YR4}}, which, in the date of the comic (February, 10, 2025), was estimated to have about a 2% chance of striking Earth on December 22, 2032. Its size is estimated to be 40-90 meters.

This comic provides a log scale correlating the size of any incoming asteroid to whether its arrival is good or bad news. While asteroids on the smaller end of the scale are good news for sky watchers, as the upcoming objects get bigger, the potential for catastrophe grows. Many astronomy enthusiasts would be happy to see bigger meteors, as bigger generally means more exciting pictures. Of course, once the meteors grow past a certain size even the most enthusiast astronomer might grow concerned about their imminent extinction.{{cn}}

===List of sizes and consequences===
Sizes are approximate.

* '''1 cm''': Good news! Meteors are pretty!
** Nothing more than a streak in the sky.

* '''30 cm''': Great news! You might see a fireball!
** Might descend far enough for the flames of its entry to be visible with the naked eye.

* '''3 m''': Okay news, unless you have expensive windows or are very unlucky.
** Can descend far enough for the shockwave of its passing to shatter windows. The comic mockingly claims this is only a problem if your windows are expensive or happen to get directly hit by it. The {{w|Chelyabinsk meteorite}}, sitting near the upper bound of this category with approximately 18 m in size, damaged more than 7,000 buildings with shockwaves, injuring almost 1500 people.

* '''60 m''': Bad news, especially if you live near the city it's aimed at.
** The {{w|Tunguska event|Tunguska meteor}}, which flattened over 2,000 km2 of Siberian forest in 1908, was 50-60 m across.

* '''600 m''': Bad news, especially if you live on the continent it's aimed at.
** Can easily cause localized extinction, and can be expected to have effects on the rest of the world as well.

* '''9 km''': Bad news for your species.
** The {{w|Chicxulub crater|Chicxulub asteroid}} that wiped out non-avian dinosaurs was about 10 km in diameter.

* '''50 km''': Bad news for your phylum.
**{{w|Chordate|Our phylum}} is primarily all the vertebrate animals.

* '''300 km''': Bad news for your biosphere.
** A global extinction event is pretty much guaranteed.

* '''2,000 km''': Good news for any life that might someday evolve on Earth's new moon.
** Earth's moon is believed to have been formed when Earth, in its infancy, was hit by an object of roughly this size. The comic assumes that another moon would form from another such impact, hypothesizes that life might evolve on that moon, {{tvtropes|BadNewsInAGoodWay|and pretends that it's good news}}.

* '''25,000 km''': Bad news for whatever planet is about to get hit by Earth.
** At this size, the "asteroid" is over twice as large as Earth itself (whose diameter is about 12,700 km) and would likely be classified as a planet. (Unofficially, at least. ''Officially,'' there would be quibbling about whether it had {{w|Clearing the neighbourhood|"cleared its neighborhood."}} Briefly. {{Citation needed}}) At that point, the comic points out, it would be more accurate to describe the Earth crashing into the "asteroid"/planet, not the other way around.

Title Text: the "bottom ones" have enough mass to change Earth's orbit. If it changed enough it might intersect the orbit of other planets (probably Venus or Mars, since those are the closest). This might lead to Earth colliding with that planet. Also, even without a collision, the changed orbit might perturb '''their''' orbits due to the Earth's gravitational force and cause negative consequences by either invoking or revoking {{w|Commensurability (astronomy)|orbital resonances}} between the various inner planets.

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

:[Header:]
:An asteroid is headed straight for Earth! That's...

:[A log scale of lengths is shown, labelled "Asteroid size", with markings of 1 cm, 10 cm, 1 meter, 10 meters, 100 meters, 1 km, 10 km, 100 km, 1,000 km, and 10,000 km. The remaining lines of text are at various points down the scale.]
:...Good news! Meteors are pretty!

:...Great news! You might see a fireball!

:...Ok news, unless you have expensive windows or are very unlucky.

:...Bad news, especially if you live near the city it's aimed at.

:...Bad news, especially if you live on the continent it's aimed at.

:...Bad news for your species.

:...Bad news for your phylum.

:...Bad news for your biosphere.

:...Good news for any life that might someday evolve on Earth's new moon.

:...Bad news for whatever planet is about to get hit by Earth.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]

3040: Chemical Formulas

2025-01-21T07:18:06Z

172.68.186.132: /* Transcript */ Attempting to fuller describe the picture. [Including 'error'.] My organic chemistry is a bit rusty (as is my ferrochemistry!), so may need patching up!

{{comic
| number = 3040
| date = January 20, 2025
| title = Chemical Formulas
| image = chemical_formulas_2x.png
| imagesize = 275x335px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Can you pass the nackle?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BORON-OXYGEN-TANTALUM-URANIUM-TITANIUM-MOLYBDENUM-TITANIUM-CARBON-ALUMINUM-LITHIUM - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This is another comic on [[:Category:How to annoy|How to annoy]] people, in this case chemists.

In this comic, Cueball humorously mispronounces the chemical names of {{w|carboxylic acid}}s. Instead of pronouncing "HCOOH" (for what is technically methanoic acid, or named {{w|formic acid}} from its association with {{w|Formicinae#Identification|ants}}) and "CH3COOH" (ethanoic acid, also known as {{w|acetic acid}}, most often encountered in vinegar) according to their standard chemical names, he says them phonetically as "hakoo" and "chuckoo," which Randall describes in the caption as "How to annoy chemists".

The title text continues this trend to the humor by referencing the phrase "Can you pass the salt?" but, instead of referring to the commonly understood "salt", Cueball uses "nackle". This is an apparent attempt to pronounce "NaCl", the chemical formula for {{w|sodium chloride}} (the primary constituent of ordinary {{w|table salt}}, as well as {{w|rock salt}}). As well as being an actual request for the {{w|condiment}} (which is not entirely in context with the comic, though may be linked to the prior interest with vinegar), the request may also be used to rhetorically reinforce a previous statement (having metaphorically 'put it on a plate', one is now fully prepared to 'dine' on it). Alternatively, it could be an expression of ''someone else's'' incredulity, as a variation upon "taking <some dubious detail> with {{w|a grain of salt}}".

Incidentally, there ''are'' three Pokémon whose names contain the letters "nacl" pronounced roughly as in the title text, introduced in ''Scarlet and Violet'': [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Nacli_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Nacli], [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Naclstack_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Naclstack], and [https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Garganacl_(Pok%C3%A9mon) Garganacl].

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

[Cueball is gesturing towards a whiteboard that show the chemical formulas: HCOOH, CH₃COOH]
[Below these, respectively, are classic diagramatic representations of formic/methanoic acid [with an apparently accidental doubled bond between the carbon and the hydroxy group] and acetic/ethanoic acid; being, in turn, a single- and double-carbon chain molecule with a double-bonded oxygen (carbonyl group) plus an oxygen-hydrogen (hydroxy) upon one carbon of each, to form the full carboxyl grouping, and hydrogens completing all other expected bonds.]

Cueball: The two simplest carboxylic acids are hakoo and chuckoo.

Off-Panel Voice: No!!

Caption: How to annoy chemists

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:How to annoy]]

Talk:3035: Trimix

2025-01-10T09:25:32Z

172.68.186.132:

The 'standard' and '2x' sized images had unexpected sizes, so an imagesize parameter has been added to render the image consistently with other comics on this website. See the web [https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/trimix.png archive] for more details. --[[User:TheusafBOT|TheusafBOT]] ([[User talk:TheusafBOT|talk]]) 05:15, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:yeah, the image on xkcd.com looks comically large for me, and I think this might be related to this. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.155.86|172.69.155.86]] 15:50, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
::Not for me. I’m on Safari, and it looks pretty normal. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 16:08, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:::I'm on Chrome and it looks much larger than usual. .-. --[[User:1234231587678|1234231587678]] ([[User talk:1234231587678|talk]]) 16:50, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
::::"Comically large"? If anything, the regular size is comically small. Why doesn't randall post comics in HD like everyone else? [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.167|141.101.109.167]] 20:15, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:::::Because it's stick figures and thus unnecessary. Also, (at least on chrome) the image is so large that it overflows the boundaries. Likely a glitch, but maybe a pun, yeah. [[User:Stallman|Stallman]] ([[User talk:Stallman|talk]]) 04:53, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
::::::I thought the "over-inflated" image was part of the pun... - [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.177|172.70.210.177]] 17:48, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:::::Whatever size it is, it will, by its nature, be comically so.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.132|172.68.186.132]] 09:25, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

I'd question whether you could get a scuba tank to float with any amount of helium. Since you're dealing with a fixed size tank the most lift you going to get would be less than the weight of the air that the tank displaces (lift = weight of air - weight of tank - weight of helium, iirc). A typical aluminum Ali 80 tank has a volume of 11.1 liters which displaces only about 151g of air while the tank itself weighs 14kg [[User:StumbleRunner|StumbleRunner]] ([[User talk:StumbleRunner|talk]]) 07:17, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
: Now that you mention it ... I was distracted from the practicalities by the voice of Marvin the Martian running around in my head. Something about an earth-shattering kaboom. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.165|172.71.151.165]] 07:33, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
::Yes of course a SCUBA tank cannot create any float since it cannot change it's volume (except when exploding). This is the reason why it would not work. No matter how much helium is compressed (that it it the problem the gas is compressed!) inside it. I have added this, and are not sure the text beneath this makes any sense. Someone deleted my addition but I hope this was a case of edit conflict they did not care to resolve, rather than they deleted it on purpose!? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:11, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:::I think, on revue, I happened to restore anything you thought lost (albeit in my words, not yet knowing what you'd done) when correcting/removing the awkward misunderstanding that helium is "anti-gravity" in the 'true explanation' bit. (Yes, it's the conceit of the comic, but should not then have been used in the ''genuine'' bit of the Explanation. You only become more buoyant if you have ''less'' weight in a given volume. For an effectively unchanging volume, more of even a lighter gas is heavier. And you can never have little enough of any gas to make a Scuba-tank buoyant at sea-level air pressures.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.118|172.70.90.118]] 11:13, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
::::I cannot say if it was you who did this, I do not think so, since yo wrote several hours later here, and in both you comments case and the case where something was deleted it is different IP addressees. But the current explanation has taken the gist of what I intended and made it much better, so I'm happy with the current explanation which is much better than my attempt ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:23, 10 January 2025 (UTC)
: There is no question here. Boyancy is provided by making the container (the tank in this example) lighter for its volume than the equivalent amount of air. With a balloon, the container volume increasaes as you increase the helium, making the container more boyant. A tank does not expand, and thus gets less boyant as increased helium adds to its mass per volume. The very best that you could do would be to fill the tank with a vacuum, but even then it would still weight more than the equivalent amount of air due to the weight of the tank itself.[[User:Geek Prophet|Geek Prophet]] ([[User talk:Geek Prophet|talk]]) 18:04, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Trimix is also the name of one of the strongest injectible erectile dysfunction drugs. This was my first thought when I saw the comic title. Even after I recognized my error I half expected a double-entendre on "inflation".[[User:Geek Prophet|Geek Prophet]] ([[User talk:Geek Prophet|talk]]) 18:07, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:When I first found the comic and googled “trimix”, the school {{w|Securly}} filter blocked it because of that exact reason. It was only when I switched to my personal computer that I realised my mistake. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:31, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
::That's the Scunthorpe Problem, for ya... ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.70|172.70.85.70]] 22:51, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

Won’t breathing too much helium cause {{w|Inert gas asphyxiation}}{{w|Inert gas asphyxiation|/suffocation}}? '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 21:55, 9 January 2025 (UTC)
:yes. yes it will. However, when breathing at depth, there is the around the same partial pressure of oxygen as in the atmosphere at the surface, so you breathe it just fine as the oxygen will diffuse into your lungs just the same without the risk of oxygen toxicity. The helium just acts as a filler gas, acting to also reduce the risk of nitrogen narcosis by reducing the partial pressure of nitrogen, and is chosen because it is easy to breathe because it is light. consequently, mixtures with low amounts of oxygen are not safe to breathe closer to the surface as there is not a high enough partial pressure of oxygen to support consciousness. (i know i just told you information you could have gotten from simply reading the {{w|Trimix (breathing gas)| wikipedia article}} yourself [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] ([[User talk:Firestar233|if you desire conversing]] | [[Special:Contributions/Firestar233|what i have done]]) 07:06, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3030: Lasering Incidents

2025-01-06T09:50:59Z

172.68.186.132:

Opportunity missed: Could have said "Santa's sleigh and other aircraft....". At least the laser beam is green. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.27.100|172.68.27.100]] 22:41, 27 December 2024 (UTC)

:that would have been dumb and late [[Special:Contributions/172.71.135.85|172.71.135.85]] 22:52, 27 December 2024 (UTC)

Why is everyone here interested only in commenting, and not being helpful? [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 23:37, 27 December 2024 (UTC)
:Some people like to just comment, or are insecure about their explaining skills. Some people like to mainly focus on transcripts, other like to clean up grammatical mistakes, and some just enjoy to lurk and watch as the explanation slowly builds up. Don’t judge other people on something as frivolous as this. Besides, only two other people have commented and there have been 4 people who have edited the explanation and transcript, including me and you. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 00:10, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
::Sorry. I was pretty annoyed, although it is cool to do the first draft. Besides, if you don't think you're good at explaining, it doesn't matter, because if the next editor thinks you did a bad job, then they'll fix it. [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 04:28, 29 December 2024 (UTC)

::Also there has been talk about why there was no x-mas comic. Given the Parker probes record, there could have been a later x-mas reference here on 3rd x-mas day... But that was not to be. First time in 20 years without a Christmas comic in the holiday. There was a comic about Advent Calendars, but that was at the very start of December. So makes sense to comment on this, and that it woul dbe dumb just because it is late is a personel view. I would have welcomed a late x-mas reference... Now I'm awaiting to see if the 1st of January will be with a New Year comic. That has failed in 2021. So it would not be a first. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:27, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
:::Consider the Christian pastor - or musician - who, year after year, has to come up with some new wrinkle on the s.o.s., that fits within the seasonal tropes or else. Randall's well might simply have run dry, and, don't haveta, not gonna. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.223|172.68.22.223]] 18:01, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
::::In both cases I would say stop what you are doing, if you cannot make a funny comic including Christmas or make a speech for one of the important events of the year, then stop doing comic or being a priest. I personally think he decided that Parkers record was more important, and also likely that he has a hard time seeing anything to be joyful about here on Earth at the moment. Last time Trump was elected he posted several sad comics. Like [[Sad]] and [[1779: 2017|2017]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:08, 30 December 2024 (UTC)
:::::I think it's simpler. He wanted to mark Parker's achievement (ongoing, at that point, note that it was before we were even sure it survived...) and had an idea that just had no Christmas linking factor, so went with the important thing rather than miss it and do something Christmas-y that he could do almost ''any'' year. No reason that (however disappointed) he "cancelled Christmas" due to his mood, just found it less notable/less shoehornable. You can create downbeat Christmas satire (think like the Santa's sleigh victim to the rocket range safeguards, etc, but moreso) if your actual aim is to 'mark a depressing Christmas', but even ''that'' was defered in favour of "hey, look at Parker!" as a theme.
:::::We have a couple of comics (todays and then NYD's) that might easily 'celebrate' the tirning of the (Gregorian) year in up-beat/down-beat/odd-beat manner, or might not do any of that (would be unusual to have neither being that, but doubtful they'd both be non-topical in all respects).
:::::Anyway, still some few more days to go before the close of the festive season brooks no further 'topical for the holidays' comics (we had the Advent Calendar Advent Calendar to mark the season's start, so it's not out of the question that the Twelfth Day Of Christmas also gets directly marked (or whatever day fits with a comic publication date) as a bookend, to add to (and maybe flip) the Advent one having already side-referenced the Twelve Days one. Or not. Entirely up to him.
:::::So, yeah, probably simpler (though expanding it into words means using a lot of them). Ultimately: Randall's choice, what thrice-weekly 'face' he puts on the world. And, however full of information they can be, they can't actually all contain a full fMRI of his heart fully displayed on his sleeve. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.42|172.68.186.42]] 15:32, 30 December 2024 (UTC)

you wouldn't actually see a green glowing line; that's not how lasers work {{unsigned ip|172.68.70.67|00:33, 28 December 2024}}
:That would depend upon the conditions. It would need ultra low humidity (or entirely the wrong temperature to show it) and also a pretty dust-free environment to have ''no'' visible track of the laser, across the kind of distance where you're disrupting an aircraft (from on the ground on the sightline of a pilot) and with the laser of sufficient power to cause any mischief. And Rayleigh scattering applies to some degree even in clean+dry air, in conditions of at least reasonable darkness. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.49|162.158.74.49]] 01:45, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
::I've seen someone at an astronomy demo use a laser pointer to point at stars, exactly because of this effect. It worked pretty well, even without high humidity or dust. -- [[User:Phyzome|Phyzome]] ([[User talk:Phyzome|talk]]) 02:04, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
:::Seconded. '''[[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]][[User talk:42.book.addict|Talk to me!]]''' 04:13, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
:::: I dunno, they never seem to catch these people who irritate soccer goalies with laser pointers... And i myself was once targeted with a laser pointer, some guy in the apartment house 200 meters away thought it funny to shine one through my living room window, and I had no idea where it was coming from... :--[[Special:Contributions/172.71.172.172|172.71.172.172]] 10:56, 28 December 2024 (UTC)
::::: Well if it is in a stadium it is hard to say who did it, if they put it away after. But near an airfield, when you are putting many lives at risk there may be a higher interest in catching these. But inttersting to know how many got arrested or fines for this kind of stupidity? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:27, 28 December 2024 (UTC)

3029: Sun Avoidance

2025-01-06T09:46:22Z

172.68.186.132: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 3029
| date = December 25, 2024
| title = Sun Avoidance
| image = sun_avoidance_2x.png
| imagesize = 311x403px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = C'mon, ESA Solar Orbiter team, just give the Parker probe a LITTLE nudge at aphelion. Crash it into the sun. Fulfill the dream of Icarus. It is your destiny.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SANTA BOT FLYING TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN (SKILL ISSUE). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic humorously ranks space missions based on their ability to "avoid" the Sun, presenting it as a "Sun Avoidance Skill Leaderboard." Most space missions remain relatively far from the Sun, with distances in the tens of millions of kilometers. However, the {{w|Parker Solar Probe}} is listed at the bottom of the leaderboard because it has come significantly closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft, at just 6.17 million kilometers. The joke lies in framing this incredible scientific achievement as a "failure" in avoiding the Sun.

The missions listed include notable solar and planetary exploration spacecraft like {{w|Mariner 10}}, {{w|Helios 1}}, {{w|BepiColombo}}, {{w|MESSENGER}}, and {{w|Solar Orbiter}}. These missions, designed to study the Sun or its surroundings, are ranked by their closest approaches to the Sun. The comic highlights the vast difference between the Parker Solar Probe and all other missions, emphasizing its unprecedented proximity to the Sun as part of its mission to study the solar corona and solar wind.

The inclusion of "All Other Expeditions in Human History" at the top of the leaderboard adds to the humor by lumping together all non-Sun-focused missions, which obviously maintain much greater distances from the Sun. The comic concludes with a sarcastic congratulation to the Parker Solar Probe for its "worst job avoiding the Sun," humorously subverting the intention and achievement of the mission.

The caption text further expands on the joke by mockingly framing the Parker Solar Probe's proximity to the Sun as a skill-based failure. It suggests that its operators have demonstrated the "worst Sun avoidance skill" ever. This playful jab contrasts with the reality that the Parker Solar Probe's engineers and scientists intentionally designed the spacecraft to approach the Sun closer than ever before, enduring extreme heat and radiation to gather groundbreaking scientific data.

The title text references the Greek legend of {{w|Icarus}}, whose father crafted artificial wings so the two of them could fly out of the open-topped prison they were in. Icarus, despite his father's warnings, flew too high which, according to the myth, got him appreciably closer to the Sun where it was much hotter, hot enough to destroy Icarus's wings, which caused him to plummet from a very high altitude to his death. The comic reframes this from an unfortunate consequence of his overreaching, to a glorious failure of an attempt to destroy himself by reaching the sun itself. (As humanity has learned since then, the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere are cold, not hot, and the distance from Earth's surface to the upper reaches of its atmosphere is only a tiny fraction of the total distance from the Earth to the Sun.) The caption text urges the operators of another satellite to use their satellite to alter the Parker Solar Probe's orbit to send it into the Sun, which would by definition lower the Parker Solar Probe's distance from the Sun to zero. Unfortunately, the Parker Solar Probe was only designed to get close to the Sun, not into it, and would be destroyed soon after entering the Sun if not before. Being destroyed would prevent the Parker Solar Probe from transmitting any further data, terminating its mission. Its operators would probably object to this.{{cn}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[Header:] Sun Avoidance Skill Leaderboard

:[A table with three columns, all with underlined headers.]
:Rank
:Mission
:Sun Nearest Miss
:[First 'row', 'Rank', is of extra height and over several lines, using vertical and horizontal ellipses between the two endpoints to indicate a range of ranks in the first column, the first visible digit of the larger number being cut off by the left frame edge:] 1. ⋮ … ⋮ 4303857.
:[Across both the 'Mission' and 'Sun Nearest Miss' columns, the first row has some text spread across two lines, within a framing pair of large square brackets to match the Rank range:] All other expeditions in human history
:[A simple row, with all three columns separately populated, the first column's Rank number is also cut off across the first visible digit.]
:4303858.
:Mariner-10
:69.0 million km
:[Another row, likewise.]
:4303859.
:Helios 1
:46.4 million km
:[Another row.]
:4303860.
:BepiColombo
:45.8 million km
:[Another row, with a yet more significant Ranking digit now partly visible due to non-proportional spacing, itself being cut off in the stead of the now fully visible next digit.]
:24303861.
:Messenger
:45.3 million km
:[Another row, back to the original pre-cutoff.]
:4303862.
:Solar Orbiter
:43.8 million km
:[Another row.]
:4303863.
:Helios 2
:43.3 million km
:[Final row.]
:4303864.
:Parker
:6.17 million km

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Congratulations to the Parker Solar Probe for setting a new record for "Worst Job Avoiding the Sun."

==Trivia==
*This comic was released on Christmas Day of 2024, but makes no reference to Christmas.
**This year marks the first time in xkcd's 20 year history (of releasing comics around Christmas), that there have been no [[:Category:Christmas|Christmas comics]] released during those days.
**Also all nine times before this year, when a release day fell on Christmas Day, that comic has always been about Christmas.
**If [[Randall]] found the accomplishments of the Parker Solar Probe more interesting than Christmas itself that might explain why this comic was released on Christmas Day instead.
**It is not the first space exploration accomplishment mentioned during Christmas, however, in the previous case [[2559: December 25th Launch]] from 2021, the comic was give seasonal spin. 

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space probes]]

3028: D&D Roll

2025-01-06T09:37:52Z

172.68.186.132: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3028
| date = December 23, 2024
| title = D&D Roll
| image = dnd_roll_2x.png
| imagesize = 312x313px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Under some circumstances, if you throw a D8 and then a D12 at an enemy, thanks to the D8's greater pointiness you actually have to roll a D12 and D8 respectively to determine damage.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a D20 FORGED IN THE CAVES OF A BOT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is a scene from a tabletop roleplaying game, probably {{w|Dungeons & Dragons}}. In [[3015: D&D Combinatorics]], the same people, [[Cueball]], [[Megan]], [[Ponytail]], [[White Hat]] and [[Knit Cap]], are seated playing D&D in the same seats, where Cueball seems to represent [[Randall]].

Here Cueball announces "I roll D20... 18," referring to rolling a 20-sided die and getting the relatively high score of 18, presumably while in a fight with a {{w|kobold (Dungeons & Dragons)|kobold}} (a small reptilian humanoid creature in D&D.) The {{w|gamemaster|Dungeon Master}} (DM, or game master), Ponytail, responds that the kobold is unaffected, but suggests using a sword instead, pointing out the absurdity of trying to defeat an enemy by rolling dice at them. (Ponytail was also the dungeon master in the previous D&D comic).

Cueball made the mistake of assuming that Ponytail would understand which of his weapons or other {{w|melee}} attacks he intended to use, but she had no way of knowing that, so she decided to gently tease him about the omission. This is a common mistake, and being gently made fun of is a common result. The player will usually be allowed to state the specific attack intended and roll again.{{acn}} It could also have to do with the idea that some people forget D&D is a roleplaying game and just roll dice without explaining, for example, *how* they charm the shopkeeper.

However, the possibility exists that the players' characters have actual dice, such as those which were role-played as being produced in [[244: Tabletop Roleplaying]]. The title text suggests that if you literally threw dice as weapons, an eight-sided die (D8) would do more damage than a twelve-sided die (D12) because of its {{w|Dice#Common variations|pointier shape}}, so ironically, you might need to roll the D12 to determine the D8's damage and vice versa, in "some circumstances." As per the Background below, those circumstances are considerably slight.

===Background===
When attacking an enemy in D&D, regardless of the weapon used, the attack starts with a d20 roll to see if it lands a solid hit. If a sufficiently high (or in the earliest editions, sufficiently low) number is rolled, the attack hits, and then further dice (chosen depending on the weapon's form and any magic it might possess) are rolled to determine damage. Before any dice can be rolled at all, however, the player must declare which enemy they are attacking and what with. This is trivial if the attacking character always uses the same weapon and is facing a single enemy, but becomes an important question if the fight is more complex. Consider a case where there are two kobolds present, one wearing plate armor while the other has only a loincloth on (the armor requiring a better d20 roll to defeat), and the player carries both a greatsword (dealing heavy general damage) and the magical "Icepick of Instant Kobold Death" (normally ignored but in this case very useful) and also has magic item that can shoot a destructive [https://5e.d20srd.org/srd/spells/scorchingRay.htm ''Scorching Ray'']. There are also certain weapons that deal subpar damage on a typical attack, but trigger a powerful extra effect on a very good roll such as 18, making it even more important to specify which weapon one is using before making the roll. A cheating player might roll first, and then decide which weapon they were using and on which target. This could also be used to avoid wasting a weapon (or [[3015: D&D Combinatorics|particular ammunition]] with limited uses.

By D&D 5 rules, a stone hurled from a sling does [https://5e.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/weapons.htm#simpleWeapons 1d4 bludgeoning damage]. A sling bullet typically weighs [https://5e.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/equipment.htm#tableAdventuringGear 3/40 pound (1.2 oz, 35 g)], a plausible weight for a normal-sized die made of a moderately dense material. Presumably, an object of similar weight that's thrown "by hand" rather than with a sling would do less damage, though a heavier object might do similar damage (albeit with less range). The D&D 3.5 spell [https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicStone.htm ''Magic Stone''] enhances ordinary small stones so they do 1d6+1 damage when hurled, or 2d6+2 when striking undead creatures. So depending on the setup, a D&D character throwing a die at an enemy could theoretically cause considerable harm, but would normally be much better served with an intentionally crafted weapon.

Alternately, DMs may take umbrage at a player's presumption to roll dice for actions before being asked to, and this could be interpreted as a chiding. Sometimes rolls are not necessary in cases where success is automatic (the kobold is effectively helpless) or impossible (the kobold is magically immune to physical attacks), although it should be the DM's own choice whether to still test for a meaningful critical [https://rpgmuseum.fandom.com/wiki/Critical_failure failure] or [https://rpgmuseum.fandom.com/wiki/Critical_hit success], despite it being an apparently foregone conclusion of either kind. There are also other circumstances where the required dice is(/are) different ''in this instance'' from that which the player may assume. From a practical perspective, if the performed rolling of the dice is not required (or correctly composed) for the DM's purposes, they can choose to ignore it and/or ask for some other roll(s) to be made. It may then be the player that might be most upset by having rolled a 'good' roll that has been 'wasted', on the principle that they would have liked it to have it happen later, when it actually mattered, despite this being statistically irrelevant, assuming that the DM doesn't keep any such details mysteriously hidden.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Megan, Ponytail, White Hat, and Knit Cap are sitting around a table in a tabletop gaming session. Both Cueball and Knit Cap are sitting in office chairs at the ends of the table, with Cueball leaning forward and holding his hand above the table and Knit Cap leaning back on her arm. Behind the table, Megan sits to the left of Ponytail and White Hat to the right. They are both looking at Ponytail, while Ponytail is looking at Cueball. Objects such as dice, miniatures, a map, and papers are on the table.]
:Cueball: I roll D20... 18.
:Ponytail: The kobold is unaffected.
:Ponytail: Honestly, I don't know why you thought dice would help. You should probably try a sword or something instead.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Games]]

Talk:3027: Exclusion Principle

2025-01-06T09:36:00Z

172.68.186.132:

It should be noted, that amusingly, since the quantum gravity has yet to be full explained thanks to the fact that gravity affects, and that for all we know, Exclusion Principle may be just as valid, if not more so, to be on the list as Gravity (even though Exclusion Principle should not, generally, be on this list.) {{unsigned|LilithRose|06:48, 21 December 2024}}
: I'm in agreement. "Fundamental Forces" aren't an unalterable fact about the physical universe - they are scientists' best explanation for the unalterable facts about the physical universe until we find a better one. As a result there could be an underlying reason for the exclusion principle being just as fundamental to the universe as electromagnetism - we just don't know it yet. [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 12:39, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
:: Just to be clear, there *is* an underlying reason for the exclusion principle being just as fundamental to the universe as electromagnetism, and physicists know what it is. The only thing is the exclusion principle isn't a fundamental *force*, it's a different kind of fundamental thing.

:: In short, the exclusion principle necessarily arises as a property of certain particles in any system that includes quantum mechanics. If I had to try to give a rough outline of the reason why, I'd say it's something like this:

:: Suppose you construct an equation describing a quantum system with two particles that are in different positions but are otherwise identical. In many standard examples, this equation would look like the sort of wave equation you get in many problems that use the Schrodinger equation, where the square of the equation represents the probability of the two particles being observed in a particular state.

:: Now suppose those particles swap positions. What happens to the equation? Well, since the particles are identical, the observed probabilities must be the same; if there was an observable difference from merely swapping their positions, then the particles wouldn't be identical.

:: However, since the probabilities are the *square* of the equation, that actually leaves two possible solutions for what the equation could be, for exactly the same reason that the square root of 4 has the two possible solutions of 2 and -2. Similarly, the equation of the swapped particles can either be exactly the same as for the unswapped position *or* it could be negated. Which version you get depends on the properties of the particle itself. Particles where the swapped equation stays the same are called bosons. Particles where the swapped equation negates are called fermions.

:: This negation is what causes the exclusion principle (and indeed, the behaviors unique to fermions more generally), because it means certain combinations of fermions will subtract rather than add amplitude to the final wave function, decreasing the probability of those states occurring, and in some cases even fully zeroing out the amplitude, resulting in a zero probability of certain states happening at all.

:: For example, the most familiar case of this effect is how two electrons cannot be in precisely the same state in an atom. To see why that's true, suppose that really did happen. By the logic earlier, swapping those electrons must change the sign of the equation describing them, since this is true of all fermions. However, since the two electrons are in precisely the same state after the swap (note that not even their positions changed, unlike the earlier case discussed), it must also be the case that the resulting equation is exactly the same. The only solution for the conditions y=-x and also y=x is if x=y=0, meaning the probability of this happening is zero.

:: By contrast, that above logic doesn't apply to bosons, because swapping them doesn't need to negate their wave function, so there can be some probability of two or more bosons being in completely identical states, even including identical positions.

:: If you'd like a more detailed or precise explanation, most intro to quantum mecahnics textbooks have a chapter on the exclusion principle. [[User:Gertuviti|Gertuviti]] ([[User talk:Gertuviti|talk]]) 10:39, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

::: I would say the negation is caused by the underlying physical fact that causes the exclusion principle. The particles don't know about the equations, do they? 😏 [[User:Torzsmokus|Torzsmokus]] ([[User talk:Torzsmokus|talk]]) 06:54, 24 December 2024 (UTC)

I'm increasingly under the impression that these forces & principles, are each an expression of complex electromagnetic interactions? I've never quite understood why they're viewed as separate forces, instead of distinct-but-related expressions of a single type of force across complex topologies.

Particularly, I'm unclear why quark\gluon "color" interactions are seen as anything other than topologically-asymmetric fields interlocking; it just looks like the behavior of polymagnet fields, to me. (By the way, I'm glad there's now a common term, "polymagnetic", for the patterned fields that I'm sure many of us assembled while playing with tiny neodymium magnets & wire, as kids! Arranging multiple cores for a smaller, denser field, & observing that the patterns could interlock, felt like major 'Aha!' moments for me, at the time.)

I was so frustrated by my own feeling of "this complex thing I know very little about, really seems to have a very basic underlying principle that's being widely misconstrued", that [https://www.perplexity.ai/search/i-m-increasingly-under-the-imp-Q83bSr8pRXqMf64_VxKMZQ I've petitioned a mindless bot to hear my case.] (You'd have to scroll at least about halfway down, to get to any prompts even slightly interesting.) I'm probably wasting ''everyone's'' time with this, but it has been bothering me, more & more for ''decades,'' & my reading so far hasn't lessened that.

Why is everyone so insistent that these 'other' forces aren't magnetism? Seems like quite literally ''everything'' is magnetism, to me. Besides a formal education in the matter, what the heck am I missing, here? [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:38, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

:I don't know what you mean by "complex topologies." Which topology? The reason we know the strong and weak interactions are not the electromagnetic interaction is that they have completely different gauge symmetries, among other reasons. The electromagnetic interaction has local symmetry group U(1), and the strong interaction has SU(3). Behaviorally-speaking, they are completely different in almost every respect, affecting different sets of particles, having different strengths, having different potentials, different ranges, carried by different fields, etc. Just as an example, an electron doesn't interact via the strong force ''at all.''

:It is likely that at extremely high energies, the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions are all unified. A theory describing this hypothetical union is called a grand unified theory or GUT, and detecting this experimentally is a major objective of modern physics. The unified "electroweak" interaction has already been observed at lower energies. But that doesn't mean the weak interaction is "just magnetism" or that electromagnetism is "just weak." They are both a consequence of a broken symmetry. The fully symmetric grand unified field would not resemble any one of the interactions that we see at lower energies but would be a symmetric combination of all of them. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 16:38, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

:: I may be out of date but wasn't the electro-weak force unified about 40 years ago? What's changed? (If I had to guess somebodies changed the meaning of "unified" and its relationship to symmetry breaking at low energy?)[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.120|162.158.159.120]] 00:51, 25 December 2024 (UTC)

: I absolutely won't claim any kind of knowledge, but Richard Behiel's video series on quantum mechanics, culminating in his 3-hour video on electromagnetism as a gauge theory is INCREDIBLE and absolutely explained a lot to me[[Special:Contributions/172.71.191.51|172.71.191.51]] 23:24, 22 December 2024 (UTC)Bumpf

"Electrons don't like to be in the same 'spot'" is plain wrong. "Same quantum number set" is the buzzword - remember, two electrons fit in the s orbital, one spin up, one spin down. "Spin-statistics theorem" is a good place to start to ponder about the why. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.95.145|162.158.95.145]] 09:40, 22 December 2024 (UTC)
: Way too complicated, please change the universe so that "same spot" is good enough [[User:Kev|Kev]] ([[User talk:Kev|talk]]) 12:35, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

Do we need a category for quantum spin? I'm seeing well over a dozen comics closely involved with spin in search. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.237|172.69.33.237]] 20:18, 23 December 2024 (UTC)
:Can there be more than one article in any given quantum spin category? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.24|162.158.74.24]] 20:38, 23 December 2024 (UTC)
::Only if they're on different wiki pages. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.83|172.70.211.83]] 21:06, 23 December 2024 (UTC)
:Probably. I sometimes wonder if Randall is riffing off of how bad Wikipedia's article on {{w|Spin (physics)}} is. For a good time, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(physics)#Higher_spins [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.91|172.68.23.91]] 21:11, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

3032: Skew-T Log-P

2025-01-02T14:38:01Z

172.68.186.132: /* Explanation */ Bad habit of mine, assuming that P≈x/h is properly understood. But caught my miss-step. (Funny fact... Wrote "mist-step" first! ;)

{{comic
| number = 3032
| date = January 1, 2025
| title = Skew-T Log-P
| image = skew_t_log_p_2x.png
| imagesize = 569x626px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The most important quantity for meteorologists is of course the product of latent pressure and temperostrophic enthalpy, though 'how nice the weather is' is a close second.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by CHATGPT FOR SOME REASON - This needs an explanation. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The comic is a funny take on a {{w|skew-T log-P diagram}} (the name comes from the temperature (T) lines being skewed at a 45-degree angle, and the pressure (P) lines being logarithmic in scale). These diagrams are mostly used to plot {{w|atmospheric sounding}}s, which are usually made by sending a weather balloon up into the air.

Because the diagrams have a lot of lines on them (isobars, isotherms, adiabats, and mixing ratios, and that's before plotting the actual measurements of temperature and dewpoint temperature), they can be hard to understand if you haven't learned how to. The comic pretends to offer an explanation of how to interpret one such diagram (which may appear to have measurements from two separate weather balloons, one with two solid black lines for its measurements and the other with two dashed black lines, whereas the two lines and various styles of line generally mean different measurements from the same balloon-track), but most of the explanations are blatantly incorrect or humorous in nature.

{| class="wikitable" | style="background:#E6C3C3;"
!Item in comic
!Correct?
!Explanation
|-
| Pressure latitude || ||
|-
| Enthalpic pressure || ||
|-
| Entropic density || ||
|-
| Latent heat of cooling || ||
|-
| Isobars || || lines on a map denoting where equal air pressures exist when the map was composed.
|-
| Omnitrophic wind || ||
|-
| Isomers || No || different forms of molecules with the same formula, with the atoms or functional groups arranged differently. An example would be propanol, which has three. One of the most common isomers of propanol has its OH functional group in the middle, so is called isopropyl alcohol or isopropanol. 
However, these are actually iso'''therm''' lines, representing equal temperature.
|-
| Line of constant thermodynamics || ||
|-
| Uncomfortably moist adiabat || ||
|-
| Oops, the balloon flew through a ghost || ||
|-
| These lines are slightly different because Dave messed them up || ||
|-
| No birds up here :( || Yes* || This point is near the top of the diagram, with an air pressure of about 110 millibar (about 15 kilometers above sea level). This is well above the highest flight height of any known bird species. However, this information is irrelevant to the purpose of a skew-T log-P diagram.
|-
| Track of rising weather balloon || ||
|-
| Track of popped balloon falling back down || ||
|-
| Meteogenesis || ||
|-
| Seems bad || ||
|-
| Dew point || Real but misrepresented. || The temperature at which water condenses out of the air, and therefore dew starts to form, given the level of water vapor in the air.
It is shown here as an ''actual'' singular point, when it should be a line (typically the leftmost solid plotted line) representive of which temperature 'dew' should form at any given pressure.
|-
| Humidor || No || In reality, is a {{w|Humidor|container}} that is used maintain a more controllable humidity within which to store smoking products.
In the graph, points at the line that is probably representing the dew point, which is represents the nature of the ''actual'' humidity encountered.
|-
| Heavyside layer || || Probably a misspelling of "Heaviside," the surname of the co-discoverer of what we now call the E region of the ionosphere. Co-discovered by Arthur E. Kennelly and Oliver Heaviside.
|-
| These lines are tilted because the wind is blowing them || ||
|-
| Don't stand here or you might get hit by a balloon || ||
|}

[[File:Annotated_Skew_T_diagram.png|thumb|An actual Skew-T Log-P diagram, with several real annotations.]]The true design of a Skew-T Log-P diagram is intended to best represent the nature of the weather in any given column of atmosphere. The pressure (vertical axis, with pressure being closely but not directly inversely synonymous to altitude) is shown as a logarithmic scale (i.e. Log-P) due to the more practical separation of values. As height increases, relevent changes in the atmosphere also generally become more spaced out. A linear scale would create a 'busy' area at a lower plot and an effectively featureless upper stretch. The temperature scale is deliberately tilted, rather than orthagonal, which (together with the logarithmic nature of the pressure scale) allows the typical way that temperatures fall with altitude(≈inversely against pressure) to trend roughly vertically, give or take the notable changes that are key to understanding the forecast. Other measurement lines, differently skewed and often also curving across the temperature/pressure skewed-log 'grid', represent various other idealistic relationships (where both T and P vary, keeping another measure constant) that are useful references to meteorologists.

Upon this style of graph are plotted the ''actual'' measurements obtained by (e.g.) releasing a weather balloon. As well as the variation of actual temperatures and pressures, other retrieved data is plotted, such the {{w|dew point}}. The dew point is a function of how the humidity of the air interacts with any given temperature and pressure to produce condensation. By observing how the actual measurements and dew point line converge and cross, the development and nature of clouds can be tracked and pinned to specific cloud layers. Further details may also be included, such as wind-direction and wind-speed indications (often to the side of the plot) to give a visual cue about possible {{w|wind shear}} and/or to suggest which direction of adjacent weather-station readings may hold clues as to what changes may later blow in above the current site.

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

:How to Interpret a Skew-T Log-P Diagram
:[The comic shows a skew-T log-P diagram. On it are various labels, including isobars, comments, and other interpretations of the diagram.]
:[Left to the diagram is an upwards-pointing arrow with the label "Pressure Latitude". Right to the diagram is a downwards-pointing arrow with the label "Entropic Density". Below the diagram is a right-pointing arrow with the label "Enthalpic Pressure".]
:[The remaining labels are inside the diagram.]

==Trivia==

This comic is the first comic of 2025, having been posted on New Year's Day 2025.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Weather]]
[[Category:Charts]]

2931: Chasing

2024-12-03T00:03:05Z

172.68.186.132: Undo revision 358474 by The-Ergster (talk) Hey, Ergster, have you *read* the comics that you're giving "Rockets" category to? Mostly, they *don't actually involve rockets*.

{{comic
| number = 2931
| date = May 10, 2024
| title = Chasing
| image = chasing_2x.png
| imagesize = 462x474px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Certain hybrid events can only happen in certain locations where all the conditions are present; chasers flock to the area in and around Kansas known as tumbleweed-colliding-with-possum alley.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic is a scatter plot comparing how exciting it is to see various things with how possible it is to chase them using a convoy of coordinated vehicles.

The least chasable are stationary places like the {{w|Grand Canyon}} or {{w|International Date Line}}. It makes no sense to chase them because they don't move around, you simply go to their known locations. At the other end of the chasability spectrum are animals that move around rapidly, and fleeting astronomical and atmospherical phenomena like {{w|clouds}}, {{w|meteors}} and {{w|aurora}}. However, some of these are difficult to chase because they're small and hard to detect from a moving vehicle, e.g. {{w|gnats}}.

In the top-right position of most chasable and most exciting, tornadoes have a community of 'chasers' who attempt to predict their appearance and get as close to them as possible, which was the subject of a {{w|Twister_(1996_film)|1996 film}}, for which a sequel was due to be released shortly after this comic. A major {{w|Tornado_outbreak_of_May_6%E2%80%9310,_2024|tornado outbreak}} had also taken place immediately preceding the comic's publication.

The title text suggests that combining some of these things into a single event would multiply the excitement derived from them. This makes sense on the surface, as the rarity value of the resulting event would be high, so even two relatively mundane events could, when combined, produce an interesting outcome. However, it somewhat undermines this by suggesting that, in this particular location, the event in question (possums being hit by passing tumbleweeds) is relatively routine.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | Entity !! colspan="2" | Estimate of... !! rowspan="2" | Explanation
|-
! Chasing || Excitement
|-
| {{w|Grand Canyon|The Grand Canyon}}|| 10% || 90% || Stationary place in Arizona. It's the largest canyon in the US (but not the world), in addition to being very beautiful due to its depth and the color changes from different geological strata. Seeing a famous tourist attraction in person is exciting.
|-
| {{w|Niagara Falls}} || 15% || 75% || A generally stationary place on the border of US and Canada, between the state of New York and the province of Ontario. The waterfall is the largest in North America by width and water volume, making it very beautiful to watch.
|-
| {{w|Tourist attractions}} || 15% || 55% || Other stationary places that attract many tourists (e.g. national parks, monuments and historic places) are exciting to see.
|-
| {{w|Tourist traps}} || 10% || 40% || Stationary places that market themselves as tourist attractions, but don't really have much to offer and exist mainly to sell food and souvenirs.
|-
| {{w|Hazard (golf)#Bunker|Sand trap}} || 15% || 25% || Pits of sand in golf courses. If your golf ball lands in one, it loses all its momentum almost instantly and it is difficult to hit out to the grassy portions (fairways or greens), which is why it is a "trap". A convoy of golf-carts might "chase" a golf-ball to the sand trap it lands in, but this would not be very exciting.
|-
| The International Date Line || 15% || 10% || A jagged conceptual line running from the North to South poles around 180 degrees of longitude, used to separate the time zones that start and end each day. There's nothing to see at these locations, as the line is an abstraction and does not actually coincide with anything in real life, as well as mostly being in the Pacific Ocean, by-passing actual landfall, as well as across the Arctic Southern Oceans. The zones for {{w|time in Antarctica}} are already more pragmatically simplified or just fall back to {{w|Coordinated Universal Time}}.
|-
| Meteors || 35% || 95% || Also called "shooting stars". These are fleeting streaks of light that are visible when bits of rock or dust enter the atmosphere and burn up. These are generally rare, making them exciting to see, but there are {{w|meteor showers}} when many are visible due to the Earth passing through a large cloud of dust (usually the remnants of a comet). To astronomy buffs, these can be like natural fireworks shows. Because each meteor streak lasts for a fraction of a second, it's not generally possible to chase them, although if the rock is large enough it may survive to the ground and become a {{w|meteorite}}, which chasers [[1723: Meteorite Identification|may be able to find]] by tracking its path through the sky.
|-
| {{w|Rainbows}} || 35% || 90% || A visual effect that occurs when sunlight is refracted by water droplets in the air, spreading the light into a spectrum of different colors. Their 'location' is relative to each observer, so long as the necessary components combine correctly in the first place, so any coordinated movement is restricted to finding the right sort of standpoint from which a rainbow is visible. Moving "towards" a rainbow typically results in the rainbow "moving away" from the observer at the same speed.
|-
| {{w|Comets}} || 40% || 85% || Comets are chunks of rock and ice that orbit the Sun, usually in highly eccentric orbits that take them from the inner Solar System to the {{w|Kuiper Belt}} or {{w|Oort Cloud}} at the extreme outskirts of the Solar System. Few of them are visible to the naked eye until they are close to the Sun. They're exciting to see because they are rare, and one of the few astronomical objects that looks like more than just a tiny dot because there is a glowing "tail". While they are moving very rapidly through the Solar System, from the Earth they don't appear to move much faster than planets. So there's no need to chase them; when near the Earth, they will be visible from much of the planet for days or weeks.
|-
| {{w|Sunsets}} || 35% || 75% || Disappearance of the Sun below the horizon, should happen usually once every 24 hours (except close to the poles). Depending on weather conditions, they can sometimes be very pretty. Traveling around the Earth from east to west is needed for a continuous view of a sunset.
|-
| {{w|The Moon}} || 40% || 70% || Earth's only natural satellite with a predictable orbit. While Randall is most likely referring to chasing the Moon on the Earth, the {{w|Apollo Missions}} very much fit the description of "chase in a convoy of vehicles coordinating over radio and using instruments and data to find optimal viewing locations". That is exactly what the astronauts did, they "chased" the Moon (the Moon was moving while they flew towards it) using a convoy of vehicles (the multi-stage rockets) while they "coordinated" to Earth with their radios. Only 12 people (the {{w|Apollo astronauts}}) have actually visited it in person; the rest of us see it from about 250,000 miles (400,000 km) away. Weather permitting, it's visible for about half of every day/night cycle (though may be more obvious when this occurs significantly in the night sky, for several reasons). It doesn't move quickly in the sky, by apparent movement, so little chasing is necessary. A 'supermoon' is when the Moon looks the largest and shiniest, occurring when a full moon appears closest to the Earth in its orbit, though Randall doesn't consider this phenomenon impressive (How To, chapter 21).
|-
| Unusual clouds || 40% || 55% || Clouds with unique forms or shapes, like {{w|Lenticular clouds}}. People may want to chase after them if they’re drifting away, as they may want to view the cloud further, perhaps for scientific purposes.
|-
| Regular clouds || 35% || 40% || Clouds are an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets. People may chase clouds for the same reasons as wanting to chase unusual clouds.
|-
| {{w|Fog}} || 30% || 25% || Atmospheric condition where water droplets are very dense near the Earth's surface, resulting in a visible haze. Fog does not move much, but dissipates over time. Fog might pull away from its least ideal conditions before it vanishes completely. This entry might be a reference to {{w|Phileas Fogg}}, who was pursued around the world.
|-
| {{w|Rain}} || 35% || 20% || Water droplets falling from clouds. In most of the world, this is a pretty common occurrence. Unless the volume is extremely high, there's rarely much excitement due to them, but extreme cases may cause flooding that can be dangerous. The only people who might chase rain are weather reporters who want to get wet.
|-
| {{w|Gnats}} || 35% || 5% || Hardly anybody wants to track down gnats, as they are annoying to chase and difficult to see, but people could theoretically use advanced instruments to do so.
|-
| Aurora || 60% || 95% || Impressive light displays that result from excitement of the Earth's {{w|magnetosphere}} by charged particles in the {{w|solar wind}}. These are generally only visible in high latitudes, so most people do not live where they're visible. Their visibility can be tracked and forecasted via monitoring of solar wind output from the Sun, and particularly intense episodes can be predicted (as well as locations for viewing) on the basis of the solar cycle and solar flare activity. The release of this comic coincided with the strongest geomagnetic storm warning forecasted by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 20 years [https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/g4-watch-effect-may-11] ({{w|May 2024 solar storms}}).
|-
| Your favorite band's shows || 60% || 80% || Musical acts often plan tours, where they go around the country (or world) putting on shows every few days. Extreme fans with time (and money) on their hands may "chase" them by going to a series of their shows. Since the tour dates are planned and publicized well in advance, the shows are easy to find. However, depending on the popularity of your favorite band, this might be an expensive hobby, especially for optimal viewing. Also, tickets may be sold out.
|-
| Rare birds || 60% || 60% || Many birders will "twitch" to see rare birds, and this requires a fair amount of checking location, behavior, etc. Also, rare birds tend to be exciting to see.
|-
| Regular birds || 55% || 40% || These are easier to see than rare birds.
|-
| Regular balloons || 55% || 25% || Both children and adults accidentally let go of helium balloons, and may attempt to chase after them to retrieve them.
|-
| {{w|Tumbleweed|Tumbleweeds}} || 60% || 15% || A roughly spherical portion of certain plants that breaks off from its roots and rolls along the ground, propelled by winds, to distribute the seeds of the parent plant. Most people don't find them very interesting to look at, and they're often used as a shorthand for nothing of interest happening. They don't usually travel very quickly, so it would be possible to chase them if you were so inclined. The locomotion of tumbleweeds is of interest to ecologists, as the non-native and extremely invasive plant disperses its seeds across a region.
|-
| {{w|Speed_limit_enforcement|Speed traps}} || 65% || 5% || A section of a road where police often wait for passing drivers who are exceeding the speed limit, so they can catch them and issue speeding tickets. Frequent drivers, especially truck drivers, have developed systems to warn each other of these locations ({{w|citizens band radio}} was once the most popular method, but now this can be done using mobile phone using services like {{w|Waze}}).
|-
| {{w|Tornadoes}} || 85% || 95% || Wanting to witness a tornado is the typical objective of {{w|storm chaser}}s.
|-
| {{w|Whales}} || 85% || 90% || Widely distributed and diverse group of marine mammals. They are some of the largest animals to ever live, and often travel in groups, making them exciting and easy to see (when active at the surface). They have often been chased by humans, both for the purposes of hunting and exploiting them as a resource and by tourist-oriented whale-watching trips.
|-
| {{w|Icebergs}} || 85% || 75% || Piece of freshwater ice broken off a glacier or ice shelf. These come in many sizes and shapes, making it interesting to see a new one. At the time of this comic, there had recently been substantial interest in tracking the progress of the giant {{w|Iceberg A23a}}.
|-
| {{w|Hot air balloons}} || 80% || 60% || An aircraft whose bag is filled with heated air. Hot air balloons are ridden for a variety of reasons (entertainment, sport, advertisement, etc.) and they usually involve a "chase crew" of people on the ground. To an uninvolved observer, catching an unexpected glimpse of an airborne balloon is a moderately exciting event; giving chase is not advised, however, as it may interfere with the chase crew's operation and may be perceived as a hostile act, thereby creating ''uncomfortable'' levels of excitement.
|-
| {{w|Radiosondes}} || 85% || 50% || Small instruments carried in weather balloons to gather and transmit atmospheric parameters. There's not much to see in them, but they're easy to track with a proper receiver.
|-
| Neighborhood possums || 85% || 35% || "Possum" is a common term for {{w|Virginia opossum}}s, the only species of opossum found in North America. In urban areas they will get into human garbage, and may carry diseases, so many may consider them pests and hunt them. A coordinated group of hunters can track them.
|-
| {{w|Ice cream trucks}} || 85% || 25% || Vans that sell ice cream. They're easy to chase because they often play music and/or ring a loud bell so customers will know they're coming, and make frequent stops to allow customers to make purchases. Ice cream trucks may typically be chased by children too young to drive a convoy of vehicles for their pursuit, but their excited screams might provide data that can be used to track an ice cream truck through a city.
|-
| Other chasers || 90% || 10% || May result in an awkward or friendly encounter if met in person. Chasers may bond over their enjoyment of chasing various objects, much like how [[Geohashing|geohashers]] connect with each other at specific geohashed locations. However, another group of chasers might not appreciate it if they find out that they're being the target themselves.
|}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An X Y axis graph]
:[Y axis label:]
:Exciting to see in person
:[X axis label:]
:Possible to chase in a convoy of vehicles coordinating over radio and using instruments and data to find optimal viewing locations?
:[X and Y axis values (from bottom left):]
:No
:Yes

:[Top left quarter:]
:The Grand Canyon
:Meteors
:Rainbow
:Comets
:Niagara Falls
:Sunsets
:The Moon
:Tourist attractions
:Unusual clouds

:[Top right quarter:]
:Aurora
:Tornadoes
:Whales
:Your favorite band's shows
:Icebergs
:Rare birds
:Hot air balloons

:[Bottom left quarter:]
:Tourist traps
:Regular clouds
:Sand traps
:Fog
:Rain
:The International Date Line
:Gnats

:[Bottom right quarter:]
:Regular birds
:Radiosondes
:Neighborhood possums
:Regular balloons
:Ice cream trucks
:Tumbleweeds
:Speed traps
:Other chasers

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Scatter plots]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Rankings]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Tornadoes]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Weather]]

3018: Second Stage

2024-11-29T19:58:49Z

172.68.186.132: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 3018
| date = November 29, 2024
| title = Second Stage
| image = second_stage_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Hmm, they won't do in-flight delivery, so let's order a new first and second stage to our emergency landing site and then try to touch down on top of them to save time.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SECOND STAGE AMAZON DELIVERY DRIVER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is about how rockets use multiple stages when lifting off, and in the comic, they installed too few stages. This is unlikely to happen in real life,{{cn}} because a lot of work goes into planning rockets.

The comic depicts a manned rocket launch, and the start of its subsequent flight. All current rockets, that are capable of sending manned capsules to orbit, do so by the initial rocket engines and fuel-tank being expended (or nearly so, where there is reusability) and disconnected to allow the smaller next stage to fire and continue the boost towards orbit with altitude-optimal engines and fuel/structual mass that no longer includes the first stage. Above this second stage may be one or more other stages, as required for the mission, which generally involves propulsion that is optimal for use in the vacuum of space and which does not need the same large amount of fuel that was necessary to get start the journey off.



Note: the rocket design, though apparently at least one segment short, appears to be substantially taller than the launch tower of the pad, which is a strangely inconvruous detail. Unless the real rocket support is an angled back "hard spine" structure that has been rotated out of the way and down into the exhaust-flume/flame-trench quenching system.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A multi-stage rocket, with a capsule on top, is lifting-off the ground from a launchpad, at least two rocket nozzles are visibly producing a flame, and the pad is surrounded with smoke and/or steam from the blast suppression system. A voice comes from the capsule at the top.]
:We have liftoff.

:[The first stage separates from the rest of the rocket, part way through the roll-program. There are no obvious engines standing out from the 'second stage' (or extended payload trunk) lower shroud.]
:Main engine cutoff.
:Stage separation confirmed.
:We are go for second stage burn.

:Second stage?

:Yes.
:...What?

:[The first stage and the rest of the rocket are drifting apart in apparent freefall. No rocket is firing and the background does not seem to indicate that this view is beyond the atmosphere.]
:We were supposed to have a second stage?

:...Yes!

:Did '''''you''''' set up a second stage?

:I thought '''''you''''' were handling staging!

:Oh no.

:[They continue to drift apart slowly.]
:Okay, don't panic.
:Lemme see if we can order a stage online for same-day delivery.

:''Sigh''.

:Hey, what zip code should I put? Ours keeps changing.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Rockets]]

2997: Solar Protons

2024-11-05T02:08:09Z

172.68.186.132: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2997
| date = October 11, 2024
| title = Solar Protons
| image = solar_protons_2x.png
| imagesize = 647x783px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If any of you want to meet some cool local oxygen atoms, I can introduce you!
}}

==Explanation==

This comic is referencing the solar storm that hit the Earth on Thursday night before the comic. A result of the storm was that {{w|northern lights}} were visible across much of the northern United States, including Massachusetts where [[Randall]] lives. The northern lights normally occur much farther north, making this a rare and spectacular occurrence. The rare color background of this panel is an illustration of the northern lights.

The solar protons referenced are hydrogen nuclei ejected from the Sun. Since most hydrogen atoms are just a single proton and electron pair, once the electron is removed, the resulting ion is just a proton. These protons, being positively charged, interact with Earth's magnetosphere, and the resulting excitation of atoms in the atmosphere causes them to emit light in the form of aurora. In the northern hemisphere the aurora is called aurora borealis (Latin for "northern dawn") and in the southern hemisphere it is called aurora australis (Latin for "southern dawn").

Note, however, that - contrary to some common misconceptions - auroras are only created indirectly due to the impact of solar particles, and only a small fraction of all auroras are triggered by solar protons from coronal mass ejections. [https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/aurora-tutorial Most auroras are caused by electrons, and these electrons are mostly already trapped over the long term in Earth's magnetosphere] (although many of them originated in the solar wind at some point). The interaction of the solar wind's magnetic field with Earth's magnetosphere can create strong electric fields parallel to the magnetic field lines near the poles, and these electric fields energize the electrons and accelerate them into the atmosphere, where their interactions with oxygen and nitrogen molecules create the emission lines of the aurora. The comic merely implies that there must be solar protons arriving on Earth when there are such impressive northern lights in Beret Guy's home town, which seems likely.{{Citation needed}}

Here, [[Beret Guy]] takes on the task of giving the protons a cordial welcome to Earth, where they will spend the foreseeable future. He has set up a sign to welcome them, presumably because he is happy to see the northern lights. His sign claims that they will love being part of the atmosphere, presumably because the protons are interacting with other atoms in the atmosphere if aurora lights are emitted. The sign also invites them to try creating water. Water consists of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms sharing an electron each with the oxygen. Since the solar protons are just hydrogen nuclei, they can form water by interacting with oxygen atoms or hydroxide ions (OH-). Scientists believe that solar wind [https://physicsworld.com/a/did-the-solar-wind-create-earths-water/ frequently creates water] by interaction of the hydrogen nuclei with oxygen. However, the mechanism proposed involves solar wind first creating hydroxide from compounds in asteroids and space dust, and then another proton joining to make water. As most of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere consists of O2 molecules (two bound oxygen atoms), it is not clear if solar protons could create water in the atmosphere at the same time as the northern lights, as opposed to via various other intermediate atmospheric/geological/biological interactions which might take up hydrogen (ionised or otherwise).

The title text references water formation by saying that Beret Guy can introduce the solar protons/hydrogen nuclei to cool oxygen atoms. In reality hydrogen nuclei from the solar wind do not need an introduction,{{Citation needed}} but instead, due to their great speed, form bonds with oxygen when they impact oxygen or hydroxide.

==Transcript==
:[A large mainly black panel is filled with colorful aurora that streaks upwards from the central part of the panel. The aurora if mainly red, orange and yellow light in the streaks that goes to the top of the panel and green in the broad band at the bottom part of the aurora. The band starts lower tot he left and moves higher towards the right. Behind the aurora is a starry night sky. Beret Guy is drawn as a black silhouette just left of the center beneath the aurora which he is looking up at. He is standing on a grassy field, next to a sign to his right. The sign is black with text in a light-greenish font:]
:Welcome Solar Protons!
:You'll love being part of our atmosphere!
:There's so much to do here. Try forming water!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]