explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2957: A Crossword Puzzle

2025-04-22T09:24:14Z

172.68.205.165: Undo revision 374142 by FaviFake (talk) "An ay-ay-ay-ay battery" is how to say this literal text (*unless* "A quadruple-A"). "An eff-oh-you-are aye" and "A you-row-pea-on" are red herrings to this.

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

==Explanation==
{{spoiler|The crossword clues comprise a single hidden joke, which you can figure out on your own. If you keep reading, you won't get the chance of discovering the joke yourself!}}
This crossword may seem extremely difficult, with questions covering a wide variety of trivia, linguistics, mathematics in various forms, alongside wordplay typical of crossword puzzles. But the joke is that every single letter of every single answer is "A". The name of this comic, "A Crossword Puzzle", is a {{w|double entendre}} which could, in itself, be considered a cryptic clue; the "A" can be interpreted both as the indefinite article "a" and as an identifier saying that this crossword puzzle is specifically an "A" puzzle, due to the answer being all "A"s.

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

===Across===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
! # !! Clue !! Explanation !! Squares
|-
| 1 || Famous Pvt. Wilhelm quote || Reference to the {{w|Wilhelm scream}}, a widely used stock sound effect. || 10
|-
| 11 || {{w|IPv6}} address record || An IPv4 record is an "A" record; an IPv6 record is four times the length and is designated an "AAAA" record. || 4
|-
| 15 || "CIPHERTEXT" decrypted with Vigenère key "CIPHERTEXT" || A "{{w|Vigenère Cipher}}" translates the original text by the distance from A from the key, letter by letter. For instance, if the plaintext is "XK" and the key is "CD", the C shifts X 2 forward to become Z, and the D shifts K 3 forward to become N, yielding a ciphertext of "ZN". Since the ciphertext and the key are the same in this case, decryption just shifts all the letters back to A, akin to subtracting a number from itself and getting 0. || 10
|-
| 16 || 8mm diameter battery || An {{w|AAAA battery}} is a 1.5 V battery that measures 8.3 mm in diameter, 2.2 mm smaller than the more common AAA battery. || 4
|-
| 17 || "Warthog" attack aircraft || The {{w|A-10 Warthog}} is an attack aircraft. Here, A-10 has been turned into AAAAAAAAAA (ten As). || 10
|-
| 18 || '''E'''ve'''r'''y t'''h'''ir'''d''' le'''t'''te'''r''' in the word for "inability to visualize" || {{w|Aphantasia}} is the inability to experience mental images. Following the example of the pattern in the clue, taking the first letter and every third one after (rather than just every third letter) we determine that '''A'''ph'''a'''nt'''a'''si'''a''' gives us the word "aaaa". This clue is particularly mean because of how it instructs you to visualize the letters highlighted within the word in order to get the answer. || 4
|-
| 19 || An {{w|acrostic}} hidden on the first page of the dictionary || The first page of the dictionary (if you ignore the copyright page and the index) is the list of words starting with A. An acrostic of this page, taking the first letter of each line and arranging them in order, would just be a sequence of As. || 15
|-
| 21 || Default paper size in Europe || {{w|A4 paper}} (here written as AAAA) is the default size in Europe. At 210×297 mm, it is approximately 0.24″ narrower and 0.71″ longer than the 8.5″×11″ paper used in the United States, and due to having an aspect ratio of 1:sqrt(2), can be cut or folded in half to create two half-sized sheets (A5) with exactly the same aspect ratio. A4 is, itself, also a halving of A3 and of identical ratio, as is the case with all A-sizes higher and lower in the sequence up to A0, which has an area of exactly 1 square meter.|| 4
|-
| 22 || First four unary strings || A unary number system represents numbers using just one symbol. For example, 7 in unary would be 1111111. The first four strings in unary, if you used A as the first (and only) symbol, would be A, AA, AAA, AAAA. || 10
|-
| 23 || Lysine codon || {{w|Lysine}} is an amino acid, with codons AAA and AAG. || 3
|-
| 24 || 40 CFR Part 63 subpart concerning asphalt pollution || [https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-40/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-63/subpart-AAAAAAA?toc=1 "40 CFR Part 63"] refers to federal air pollutant regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations. The subpart for "asphalt processing and asphalt roofing manufacturing" is AAAAAAA (also part LLLLL). || 7
|-
| 25 || Top bond credit rating || The highest {{w|credit rating}} for bonds is AAA. || 3
|-
| 26 || Audi coupe || First of three Audi references. {{w|List_of_Audi_vehicles|Audi's car models}} range from A1 (subcompact hatchback) to A8 (full-size luxury sedan); the A5, the one referenced here, is a compact executive {{w|coupe}}. || 5
|-
| 27 || A pair of small remote batteries, when inserted || Two {{w|AAA_battery|AAA}} batteries, which are often used to power remote controls for domestic devices. These have been combined to give AAAAAA — "Inserted" is often a cryptic hint that one word should surround another, although such a cryptic clue would normally also contain a more direct clue (albeit ambiguously) to the full answer. || 6
|-
| 29 || Unofficial Howard Dean slogan || A reference to Howard Dean, an American Democrat who ran for the party's nomination in 2004. He famously [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6i-gYRAwM0 yelled at a rally] in a way that was thought to be bizarre and which, it is thought, doomed his campaign. || 7
|-
| 32 || A 4.0 report card || A 4.0 GPA, at least {{w|Academic_grading_in_the_United_States|in the USA}}, is all As. This clue assumes seven classes. || 7
|-
| 33 || The "Harlem Globetrotters of baseball" (vowels only) || The {{w|Savannah Bananas}}, the vowels for whom are aaaaaa. The {{w|Harlem Globetrotters}} are an exhibition basketball team, with the Savannah Bananas following a similar formula in baseball. || 6
|-
| 34 || 2018 Kiefer song || "[https://genius.com/Kiefer-aaaaa-lyrics AAAAA]". This is the only five-letter song title in Kiefer's 2018 album ''Happysad''. || 5
|-
| 35 || Top Minor League tier || The top {{w|Minor League Baseball}} tier is AAA. || 3
|-
| 36 || Reply elicited by a dentist || With your mouth open at the Dentist, the only reply a dentist can elicit from a patient is AAAAAAA || 7
|-
| 38 || Anaa’s airport || {{w|Anaa}} is an atoll in the {{w|Tuamotu archipelago}} of {{w|French Polynesia}}. AAA is the {{w|IATA}} code for its airport. || 3
|-
| 41 || Macaulay Culkin’s review of aftershave || In the movie ''{{w|Home Alone}}'', Kevin (played by {{w|Macaulay Culkin}}) puts on his father's aftershave lotion. The eight-year-old boy is not used to the lotion's antiseptic and screams as the stinging sensation kicks in. || 10
|-
| 43 || Marketing agency trade grp. || The {{w|American Association of Advertising Agencies}}, also called the 4As (here AAAA). An abbreviated word in a clue, here "grp.", is a common way to signal that the answer also should also be written as its abbreviation. || 4
|-
| 44 || Soaring climax of Linda Eder’s ''Man of La Mancha'' || Refers to [https://youtu.be/BWP7l0OTXJI?t=130 the 18-second-long wordless passage in Eder's opus], or possibly the final high note in the song "The Impossible Dream". || 15
|-
| 46 || Military flight community org. || The {{w|Army Aviation Association of America}}, or AAAA. || 4
|-
| 47 || Iconic line from ''Tarzan'' || Tarzan has a famous {{w|Tarzan yell|war cry}} he shouts, usually when swinging from a vine. || 10
|-
| 48 || '''E'''v'''e'''r'''y''' o'''t'''h'''e'''r letter of Jimmy Wales’s birth state || The birth state of {{w|Jimmy Wales}}, the co-founder of Wikipedia, is Alabama. Taking every other letter of '''A'''l'''a'''b'''a'''m'''a''' gives "Aaaa". || 4
|-
| 49 || Warthog’s postscript after "They call me ''mister'' pig!" || Pumba in ''{{w|The Lion King}}'' yells "aaaaaaaaaa" while charging at the hyenas who insulted him. || 10
|-
| 50 || Message to Elsa in ''Frozen 2'' || The call which Elsa hears in ''{{w|Frozen 2}}'' is a sequence of four notes which resemble the requiem music "{{w|Dies Irae#Music|Dies irae}}". The sequence is sung entirely with an open rounded vowel sound, or a soft "a" sound. || 4
|-
| 51 || Lola, when betting it all on Black 20 in ''Run Lola Run'' || In ''{{w|Run Lola Run}}'', Lola ({{w|Franka Potente}}) [https://youtu.be/OTSz1w-cuZM?si=2vc51WCWvn20Hjoo&t=116 screams loud enough to affect the outcome] of a roulette wheel where she has just bet all her money on Black 20. The scream could be transcribed as "AAAAAAAAAA" || 10
|}

===Down===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
! # !! Clue !! Explanation !! Squares
|-
| 1 || Game featuring "a reckless disregard for gravity" || ''{{w|AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity}}'' - notably the title is commonly extended in promotional material beyond 6 As. || 6
|-
| 2 || 1010101010101010101010102→16 || 10101010 10101010 10101010 in binary is equivalent to "AAAAAA" in hexadecimal. || 6
|-
| 3 || Google phone released July ’22 || The {{w|Pixel 6a}} was released in July 22. Stylized in this puzzle as "AAAAAA" ('A'×6) || 6
|-
| 4 || It’s five times better than that ''other'' steak sauce || Five times better than {{w|A1 steak sauce}} would be A5, stylized in this puzzle as AAAAA. || 5
|-
| 5 || ToHex(43690) || The decimal number 43690 converted to hexadecimal is AAAA. || 4
|-
| 6 || Freddie Mercury lyric from ''Under Pressure'' || A drawn-out 'Aaaaahhhh' rising in pitch, from a song by Queen and David Bowie. || 15
|-
| 7 || Full-size Audi luxury sedan || Second of three Audi references. As mentioned previously, the A8 referenced here is their full-size luxury sedan. || 8
|-
| 8 || Fast path through a multiple choice marketing survey || The "fast path" is just to select the first option over and over again. Usually the options are labeled A, B, C, and D (or more) - choosing the first option for every question would be answering entirely with As. || 7
|-
| 9 || 12356631 in base 26 || Randall is expressing base 26 using the letters of the alphabet with 1=A, in which case 1235663110 = AAAAAA26. (It's unclear how one would express the digit 026 this way.) || 6
|-
| 10 || Viral Jimmy Barnes chorus || A reference to the music video for Kirin J Callinan's song "{{w|Big Enough}}", which features rocker {{w|Jimmy Barnes}} in a cowboy hat screaming "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" while in the sky over mountain scenes. || 15
|-
| 11 || Ruby Rhod catchphrase || Ruby Rhod is a radio host in the film ''{{w|The Fifth Element}}''; he has a scene with a memorable scream. || 5
|-
| 12 || badbeef + 9efcebbb || In hexadecimal, badbeef and 9efcebbb add together to equal AAAAAAAA (195,935,983, 2,667,375,547, and 2,863,311,530 in decimal respectively). || 8
|-
| 13 || In Wet Leg’s ''Ur Mum'', what the singer has been practicing || In the song "{{w|Ur Mum}}" by {{w|Wet Leg}}, the bridge starts with "Okay, I've been practicing my longest and loudest scream", which is apparently eight As long. || 8
|-
| 14 || Refrain from Nora Reed bot || The "Endless Scream" bot on social media, made by Nora Reed, posts "AAAAAAAAAAA" (with or without an h) at varying lengths. || 8
|-
| 20 || Mario button presses to ascend Minas Tirith’s walls || In ''Mario'' games you typically use the A button to jump. In games where you don't press a button to move (e.g., games with a joystick), then the button presses required to ascend a vertical structure would probably all be A. This clue might have been inspired by the {{w|Pannenkoek2012#A-button challenge|A-Button Challenge}} / [https://ukikipedia.net/wiki/A_Button_Challenge A Button Challenge], which tallies the number of A presses needed to beat ''Super Mario 64''. Additionally, {{w|Minas Tirith}} is a fictional city in ''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}'' with seven concentric rings, each with a wall around it and higher than the last ring. Presumably, it takes seven jumps to get to the highest area of the city, so the answer is "AAAAAAA". || 7
|-
| 24 || Vermont historic route north from Bennington || {{w|Vermont Route 7A}}, or AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 26 || High-budget video game || A high-budget video game is usually referred to as a Triple-A game, or AAA. || 3
|-
| 28 || Unorthodox Tic-tac-toe win || {{w|Tic-tac-toe}} is usually won by getting either three Xs or three Os in a row, making XXX and OOO normal Tic-tac-toe wins. One could achieve a win of AAA by making the unorthodox choice of playing with the letter A instead of X or O. Alternatively, Randall is envisaging the grid as defined by rows 1, 2, 3, and columns A, B, C, so an AAA win would be simply playing in the first column each time - a strategy which should be obvious and easy to stop, even for young children who have not yet worked out that ''any'' route to winning can be blocked. || 3
|-
| 29 || String whose SHA-256 hash ends "…689510285e212385" || <code>printf AAAAAAAA <nowiki>|</nowiki> sha256sum</code> outputs <code>c34ab6abb7b2bb595bc25c3b388c872fd1d575819a8f55cc689510285e212385</code>.
Note that this 'clue' would be normally be ''particularly'' difficult, in isolation, as the nature of a {{w|hash function}} means that it is possible for multiple inputs to produce a given output, and that finding any of these (and definitely identifying ''all'' of them, to ensure you have the correct original) would require a {{w|brute-force attack}}; i.e. a test of all possible initial states to discover which of them might be viable candidates. Even more problematic is that we are only given a partial hash string, meaning we are possibly talking of a multiple of full hashes, each of them with a possible multiplicity of original plaintexts behind them. However, given the context of this puzzle, it's reasonable to guess that a sequence of 8 As might be the answer, and indeed its hash does match the clue given.
 The number of possible hashes in the clue is 1664/1616, i.e. 1648, or approximately 6x1054, although there really is no reason (aside from the fundamental impracticality) to try to solve this problem from each and every 'hash end'. Instead you would 'only' check every combination of 8 letters (presuming no digits, punctuation or whitespace would be inserted, that no "foreign"/accented characters are present and that uppercase is universally presumed, is 268; i.e. ~208 {{w|billion|short-scale billion}} possibilities) and discover which (one?) of these sufficiently matches the hash fragment given. Testing a hundred of these every second, it would take a little over 66 ''years'' to complete the task of checking every single possibility (rather than stopping at the first confirmed answer, which might well be the initial one in this particular case).
 In the context of a crossword such as this, however, you can significantly reduce this search by having established (or at least sufficiently narrowed down) the answers to the various across-clues which intersect with ever character of it (this form of crossword grid being of the {{w|Crossword#American-style crosswords|dense type}}, with no singly-clued spaces as with the more open lattice-types), reducing the necessary checks drastically. This could mean, having solved at least some of the perpendicular answers, that you have enough information to 'guess' at some likely answer, and then merely need to ''confirm'' that whatever guess(es) you make will resolve themselves into the clue-answer provided. (Much as you might with a more normally difficult clue, where you merely have to satisfy yourself that the surprise answer is at least justified as resulting from the original hint.)
| 8
|-
| 30 || Arnold’s remark to the Predator || A reference to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFYPVxHKdc this scene] from ''{{w|Predator (film)|Predator}}'', starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. || 8
|-
| 31 || The vowels in the fire salamander’s binomial name || The vowels in {{w|Salamandra salamandra}} are aaaaaaaa. || 8
|-
| 32 || Janet Leigh ''Psycho'' line || The iconic scene in ''{{w|Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho}}'' is the shower scene, in which {{w|Janet Leigh}} gives a long piercing scream as she is murdered. This can be written as 8 As if one wishes. || 8
|-
| 34 || Seven 440Hz pulses || A sound with a frequency of 440 Hz is a middle "A" note. Seven such pulses would be AAAAAAA. || 7
|-
| 37 || Audi luxury sports sedan || Third of three Audi references. The A6, the one referenced here, is their executive car. Actually, the A7, their executive liftback sedan, would fit the prompt of "luxury sports sedan" better, but 37 only has room for six As. || 6
|-
| 38 || A half-dozen eggs with reasonably firm yolks || Eggs can be [https://www.saudereggs.com/blog/egg-grading-system/ "graded on a variety of aspects"], with grades B, A, or AA. Eggs with a reasonably firm yolk are graded A, so having half a dozen of them gives you AAAAAA eggs. || 6
|-
| 39 || 2-2-2-2-2-2 on a multitap phone keypad || A "{{w|multi-tap|multitap keyboard}}" is a text entry system for mobile phones. Most numbers are associated with three letters, and tapping the same number multiple times in rapid succession selects the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd letter. 2 is "A", 22 is "B", 222 is "C", 3 is "D", etc. 2-2-2-2-2-2 translates to "AAAAAA". (If pressed quickly enough, this input may accidentally wrap around the letter list twice and simply result in a "C".) || 6
|-
| 40 || .- .- .- .- .- .- || .- is {{w|Morse Code}} for A. It reads out as AAAAAA. || 6
|-
| 42 || Rating for China’s best tourist attractions || China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism provides ratings for many tourist attractions in China on a scale from A to AAAAA, with AAAAA being the best. Examples of well-known tourist attractions with the AAAAA rating include the {{w|Forbidden City}}, sections of the {{w|Great Wall of China}}, and the {{w|Terracotta Army}}. || 5
|-
| 43 || Standard drumstick size || 5A is a common, middle-range size for drumsticks (the sticks used to play drums, not the drumsticks that get eaten). Here, it's written as AAAAA. || 5
|-
| 45 || "The rain/in Spain/falls main-/ly on the plain" rhyme scheme || An AAAA {{w|rhyme scheme}} means each of the four lines ends with the same sound. Furthermore, the sound in question is the standard vocalization of the letter A. {{w|The Rain in Spain}} is a song from the musical {{w|My Fair Lady}}. || 4
|}

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

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

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

==Trivia==
*This comic got a [[Header_text#A_Crossword_Puzzle|comic-specific header text]] after the first day it was up.
**This was because one of the comics Randall lists as one of those he enjoys, [https://www.buttersafe.com/ Buttersafe], had already posted a similar comic back in 2011: [https://www.buttersafe.com/2011/02/17/crosswords/ Crosswords].
**Randall had forgotten this, but now pays tribute to this, stating that he must have been accidentally inspired by that comic.
*[[User:Elfakyn|Elfakyn]] posted a link to a picture of the solved crossword puzzle in the [[Talk:2957:_A_Crossword_Puzzle#Solved_puzzle_picture|comments]] and allowed it to be included here:
[[File:2957_A-Crossword_Puzzle-Solved.png|500px|center]]
*All the black squares are in a symmetrical pattern, which is generally the case for crossword puzzles in the US and UK. See description of the pattern in the [[#Transcript|transcript]].
*Crosswords have been mentioned previously in [[2896: Crossword Constructors]].
*Out of 60 clues in the puzzle, 10 are references to screaming or yelling, making the puzzle approximately 17% screams.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Games]]

Talk:3078: Anchor Bolts

2025-04-19T22:33:59Z

172.68.205.165: Undo revision 373725 by 172.71.151.39 (talk) Assuming not the OP of "Was". Rude to edit others' comments. Also "Were you...", would be correct, but "Was <young you>..." more correct here.

As a kid, I was ALWAYS worried about how plate tectonics would change the continent's layout in a few hundred million years' time, along with how the Sun will die (and maybe consume the Earth if we don't move it) in five billion years. Young me would be SO glad we are finally fixing the first issue. [[User:MinersHavenM43|MinersHavenM43]] ([[User talk:MinersHavenM43|talk]]) 03:28, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
: Was young you a Superman fan, and did you ever wonder what really happened on Krypton? Scientists and engineers, funded and enabled by a Trump-style politician and his promise to "Stop The Earthquakes NOW!", actually overcame (temporarily) the materials issues and solved the stress equations (see below), and installed a (temporarily) successful planetary plate-anchoring system. Jor-El objected to the project, he and any who supported him were de-funded as a result, and he spent his remaining time ensuring that he could get his son the [deleted] outa there before the accumulated strain ruptured the anchors and blew the planet apart. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.45|162.158.41.45]] 04:09, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
:Did you also worried about the collision with Andromeda galaxy? -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 05:15, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
::I was more sad that I wouldn't be able to see it within my lifetime :( [[User:MinersHavenM43|MinersHavenM43]] ([[User talk:MinersHavenM43|talk]]) 21:02, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

Would an anti-subduction screw really work? The tectonic plates are slow, but they are quite heavy, so they have a fair bit of momentum. Indeed, enough to overcome the not inconsiderable friction already present due to the weight of the uplifted portion of the upper plate. Such a screw would therefore need to exert quite a bit of additional pressure to bring the motion to a halt; Exactly how much I shall leave as an exercise for the reader (because I have no clue where to even start trying to work it out), but my guess is that you're gonna need some seriously high tensile strength material for these, even if they are placed at very short intervals along the plate boundary. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.84.172|172.68.84.172]] 03:52, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

:The screw material could easily be some sort of unobtanium, it would still not work. With the forces involved, the result would be the stone would break around the screws, IMHO. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 05:16, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

Looks like somebody got to Randall M. and pointed out that what he drew is a {{w|Bolt_(fastener)|bolt}}, not a screw. The title and caption of the comic have been edited accordingly. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.3|162.158.41.3]] 05:38, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

:The item depicted is a 'machine screw'; A bolt has a portion of the shaft un-threaded. An actual bolt would likely be more suitable for this application, but it's not uncommon for machine screws to be used instead.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.23.21|172.69.23.21]] 09:21, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

::This appears to be incorrect, as least in the USNA (United States in North America), fans of spurious renaming of political geography. "The [https://www.dude-n-dude.com/2025/03/16/amoebas-lorica-meme-ories-59-shame-no-2/ [sigh]] American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) defines machine screws as featuring a diameter of up to 0.75 inches. While machine-screw diameters can be smaller than this, they can't be any larger, which means machine screws are typically smaller than most other screws." "Machine screws are used with a threaded hole to join two components together, sometimes requiring a nut. Bolts rely on nuts and are fitted through a clearance hole to secure parts together." [https://www.essentracomponents.com/en-us/news/solutions/fastening-components/a-guide-to-machine-screws On this evidence], the illustrated fastener is a bolt. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.142.16|172.71.142.16]] 14:34, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

This is silly. The global cooperation and engineering required to make this work (I'm assuming unobtanium as a given) far surpasses that required to decarbonise commerce and fix climate change, which project is not going well, to say the least. [[User:Neil UK|Neil UK]] ([[User talk:Neil UK|talk]]) 08:32, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

Added an Actual Citation Needed to vulcanism being bad for humanity. Without it, life may not have started in the first place. And fertile volcanic soils would not have sustained us/our predecessors if such life had started. Minor issues like localised danger are surely a blip in time compared to that, and even now there's only a danger to ''some'' humans (less than, say, yellowstone erupting, which isn't something a bolt could stop... in fact, drilling the bolthole sounds like it could ''cause'' a Yellowstone, if done wrongly (if, in fact, there is a 'right' way)). ...other than that, yeah, go ahead! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.181|172.70.91.181]] 09:49, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
:Sure, but that's not the right way to get that issue fixed. Feel free to rephrase it, or ask people to rephrase it for you in the incomplete tag. --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 11:21, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
::Did #2 --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 11:22, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
:::Solved the phrasing? I think I can remove the request from the Incomplete, but would want to retain the other expected bit (at least until the whole Incomplete gets removed, which would traditionally be no earlier than some time next week). Looks like there's arguments about this, though. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.58.97|172.70.58.97]] 14:20, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

To avoid having to travel through the mantle to insert the bolt from the bottom, wouldn't it be better to use something like a spring toggle bolt in this case? Seems like sort of a drywall situation to me. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.58.9|172.69.58.9]] 14:22, 19 April 2025 (UTC)
:Or a molly-bolt (which is dangerously close to using a {{w|wall plug}}/rawlplug ''with a screw''... as originally alluded). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.58.156|172.70.58.156]] 14:30, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

So what would be the result of this for the oceans (and connected systems)? Assuming that the bolts worked, and that the spreading at mid-ocean ridges was halted (by the vent system installed). The sea floor would not be renewed. Sediment would accumulate on the sea floor, and not be swepet under the rug. What would the long term consequences be? Would we have shallower oceans with less rocky bottoms? What would that do? (To currents, to climate, to marine life, ...) Would sedementation disrupt the circulation of ocean water through the lithosphere, messing with such things as the CO2 balance? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.57|108.162.246.57]] 20:35, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

dot

2025-04-07T10:26:02Z

172.68.205.165: Reverting, on the basis that this list is potentially endless and just throwing wild guesses or random associations out does nothing for the 'explanation', which I don't see being fulfiled without Word Of God or somehow tracking down a referent page...

{{comic
| title = Dot
| image = xkcd dot.gif
| lappend = dot
| extra = yes
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created recently. Add more information about it and mention if it has ever changed, etc. (see related comics [[NO]] and [[YES]]). There are many other xkcd pages like this and we're trying to decide how to add them to the wiki. Please see '''[[explain xkcd:Community portal/Proposals#Misc pages]]''' for more.}}This page shows a black dot blinking in the center of the screen at a tempo of 150 BPM. The GIF is composed of only two frames, one with the dot and one without. This means it's likely not a {{w|Morse code}}, as it would be interpreted as a repeated ''T''-dash, or possibly a set of ''E''s.

The Morse code convention is the following:
The duration of a dah is three times the duration of a dit (although some telegraphers deliberately exaggerate the length of a dah for clearer signalling). Each dit or dah within an encoded character is followed by a period of signal absence, called a space, equal to the dit duration. The letters of a word are separated by a space of duration equal to three dits, and words are separated by a space equal to seven dits.
If equal dot and no-dot, that seems to fit a "word" of "dah dah dah dah ..." ("TTTT[...]"). Either that or a "character" of "dit-dit-dit-dit-..." (whatever is at the infinite end of the sequence starting "E", "I", "S", "H", "5", ...).

==Transcript==
:[A flashing black dot in the center of the image, which is all white.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:No date]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]

3063: Planet Definitions

2025-03-15T02:46:36Z

172.68.205.165: /* Explanation */ Removed/reworded the whole "telescope pointed in the right direction" bit, as telescopes pointed in the *wrong* direction don't do anything at all to help you see *anything* that they now don't actually point at, not just one planet....

{{comic
| number = 3063
| date = March 14, 2025
| title = Planet Definitions
| image = planet_definitions_2x.png
| imagesize = 653x1435px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Under the 'has cleared its orbital neighborhood' and 'fuses hydrogen into helium' definitions, thanks to human activities Earth technically no longer qualifies as a planet but DOES count as a star.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|The explanation is too short.[''Are you kidding me?''] }}

This comic addresses the {{w|IAU definition of planet|controversy of whether of Pluto is a planet}} and explores many definitions, most of them humorous/nonsensical, of what a planet could be.

;Traditionalist: {{w|Pluto}} is a planet (9 planets)
:In modern times, there was {{w|IAU definition of planet#Background|no formal definition of a "planet"}} prior to 2006. However, it was generally accepted as a colloquialism that there were nine planets around the {{w|Sun}}, Pluto included (starting with Pluto's discovery in 1930 ([[988|Tradition]] is whatever Baby Boomers grew up with). As more sophisticated methods of mapping the {{w|Solar System}} were developed and {{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}} was discovered to be even more massive than Pluto, it became clear to astronomers that a more standardized definition was needed. In 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) published their formal redefinition of a "planet" to require a planet to be gravitationally dominant within its orbit, disqualifying Pluto (and Eris) which is now considered a "dwarf planet." This has been subject to push back from countless people, including [https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.15285 some planetary scientists], but in numbers mostly nostalgic laypeople dissatisfied with Pluto being "demoted" or otherwise relegated.

;Modern: Pluto is not a planet (8 planets)
:When the IAU redefined what a planet is in 2006, Pluto no longer qualifies as a planet. (since it wasn't able to clear its neighborhood around its orbit) Using the modern definition of a planet, only eight celestial objects qualified.

;Expansive: Dwarf planets are planets (17+ planets)
:It is likely that since the term "dwarf planet" contained "planet" in its name, Randall considered those as also planets under this category.
:It is also likely that the number of planets includes the ones that are considered planets and the ones that are considered to have compacted into fully solid bodies, {{w|Dwarf planet#Most likely dwarf planets| as defined by Grundy ''et al.'',}} those being {{w|Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres}}, Pluto, Eris, {{w|Makemake}}, {{w|Haumea}}, {{w|Gonggong (dwarf planet)|Gonggong}}, {{w|Quaoar}}, {{w|Orcus (dwarf planet|Orcus}} and {{w|Sedna (dwarf planet)|Sedna}}.

;Ultratraditionalist: Only the classical planets are planets (5 planets)
:The {{w|classical planets}} are objects found and considered by the Greek astronomers in classical antiquity to be considered planets. Their definition of "planet" considered visible objects that move across the sky relative to the fixed stars. There are seven classical planets, but if one were to only consider the ones that fall under the IAU's definition of a planet (this being ''less'' traditional), then there would only be five. (The Sun and the {{w|Moon}} would be disqualified)

;Condescending: Only giant planets are planets; the rest are big {{w|asteroid}}s (4 planets)
:This definition may refer to the {{w|giant planets}}, planets much larger than the {{w|Earth}}. Only the four outer planets fall under this definition.
;Simplistic: Anything gravitationally round is a planet (37+ planets)
:Using the Wikipedia {{w|list of gravitationally rounded objects of the Solar System}}, there are 37 objects listed. That includes the Sun, 8 planets, 9 dwarf planets and 19 {{w|Natural satellite|moon}}s.

;Grounded: Only objects a spaceship has landed on are planets (10 planets)
:This list includes objects in the Solar System that a spacecraft has {{w|List of landings on extraterrestrial bodies| performed a soft landing on}}. The list includes {{w|Venus}}, Earth, {{w|Mars}}, the Moon, {{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}, {{w|433 Eros|Eros}}, {{w|25143 Itokawa|Itokawa}}, {{w|162173 Ryugu|Ryugu}} and {{w|101955 Bennu|Bennu}}. Notably, {{w|comet}} landings are not included in the list.

;Regolithic: Anything covered in dirt and ice and stuff is a planet (infinite)
:This list excludes the {{w|Gas Giant}}s and the {{w|Ice Giant}}s. The list would likely include dwarf planets, asteroids, moons and comets. This is effectively the opposite of the "condescending" definition: every object in the solar system is included in one definition or the other (except for the Sun).

;Lunar: You can't be a planet if you don't have a moon (12+ objects)
:Only some objects in the solar system have known and acknowledged moons orbiting them. The value given may be {{w|List of natural satellites| the number of planets and dwarf planets}} that have moons, when excluding {{w|Haumea}} for not reaching {{w|hydrostatic equilibrium}} despite having moons. The Sun is excluded because its satellites are not moons, because ... oh, look, a Squirrel!

;Solipsistic: Earth is the only planet (1 planet)
:{{w|Solipsism}} is the idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. Randall extrapolated this idea to mean that only one's own planet that they are standing on is sure to exist.

;Judgemental: Only the prettiest ones are planets (6 planets)
:This list is likely formulated from Randall's own perception of the prettiest planets in the Solar System. Strangely, seven objects are highlighted:
:* Earth
:* Jupiter
:* One of Jupiter's moons (unclear)
:* Saturn
:* One of Saturn's moons (unclear, possibly Titan)
:* Neptune's moon (probably Triton)
:* Pluto

;Empiricist: Only worlds that I, author of this table, have personally seen are planets (12 planets)
:This list may refer to the celestial objects in the Solar System that have been made visible at night, probably using with an optical telescope (a hobbyist one, perhaps Randall's, or from time borrowed on a major institutional installation). Jupiter's {{w|Galilean moons|four largest moons}} are technically visible but hard to distinguish due to Jupiter's brightness, while Neptune is considered too faint to see with a naked eye (even if you know where to look). Apparently Randall has seen Uranus, which technically [https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/skills/how-see-uranus-in-night-sky Uranus ''is'' visible to the naked eye] under the very best viewing conditions, but these conditions are rare and it again requires knowing exactly where to look.

;Marine biologist: Only objects with oceans are planets (6+ planets)
:This list includes Earth, {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}, {{w|Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede}}, {{w|Callisto (moon)|Callisto}}, {{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}, and {{w|Enceladus}}.

;Maritime: Only objects with ''surface'' oceans are planets (2 planets)
:In the comic Earth and a Saturnian moon, likely Titan, are highlighted. Earth is the only body known in the solar system to have liquid water on the surface significant enough to be called an ocean. The highlighted moon of Saturn is most likely Titan due to its liquid seas of methane and nitrogen.

;Universalist: They're all planets (infinite)
:This list claims that all objects are planets.

;Existantialist: What if {{w|outer space|space}} ''itself'' is a planet??? (Duude)
:This list is different from the list above as it claims that all of space, rather than only the objects existing in space, are planets. The interjection ''Duude'' expresses one's amazement at this 'revelation' and replaces the number count.

;Spiteful: ''Only'' Pluto is a planet (1 planet)
:This list is a malicious play on the demotion of Pluto by demoting all other planets except Pluto instead, leaving Pluto as the only planet in the Solar System.

;(title text) {{w|Star}}: Earth is a star (2 stars)
:In May 1934, Mark Oliphant, Paul Harteck and Ernest Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory, published an intentional deuterium fusion experiment, and made the discovery of both tritium and helium-3. This is widely considered the first experimental demonstration of fusion. Randall considers that this makes Earth fall into the category of a star due to the human-induced ability for Earth to fuse hydrogen into helium using nuclear fusion.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A table with 3 columns, the headers labelled "Definition", "# of planets", and "Solar system" and 17 rows.]
:[In each row, the first column has a single word, in bold, and a descriptive sentence, the second column has a digit or other 'value', the third column is a drawing of the Solar system, featuring various bodies and a selection of moons: The Sun, Mercury, Venuse, Earth + The Moon, Mars + two moons (Phobos and Deimos), a small selection of Asteroid Belt bodies (Ceres and other smaller examples), Jupitor + four moons (likely Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto), a ringed Saturn + usually one moon (probably Titan) or two (Enceladus?), Uranus + four or five moons (likely to be Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon, but one of these over the face of Uranus only in some versions of the image), Neptune + one moon (probably Triton), Pluto + one moon (Charon), four more plutoid/Kuiper Belt objeccts (probably Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong and Eris, in distance order), the first two of them with distinct moons indicated (entirely dependent upon which main objects they are).]
:[Each row's illustrated solar system has indivudal combinations of green highlights applied to the otherwise repeated diagram.]
:[Row 1: Definition:] Traditionalist: Pluto is a planet [Number:] 9 [Highlit: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto]
:[Row 2: Definition:] Modern: Pluto is not a planet [Number:] 8 [Highlit: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune]
:[Row 3: Definition:] Expansive: Dwarf planets are planets [Number:] 17+ [Highlit: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres (in Asteroid Belt), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the further main bodies]
:[Row 4: Definition:] Ultratraditionalist: Only the classical planets are planets [Number:] 5 [Highlit: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn]
:[Row 5: Definition:] Condescending: Only giant planets are planets; the rest are big asteroids. [Number:] 4 [Highlit: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune]
:[Row 6: Definition:] Simplistic: Anything gravitationally round is a planet [Number:] 37+ [Highlit: The Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, The Moon, Mars, Ceres (without other asteroids), Jupiter + moons, Saturn and Titan, Uranus and its moons, Neptune and its moon, Pluto and the four further dwarf planets]
:[Row 7: Definition:] Grounded: Only objects a spaceship has landed on are planets [Number:] 10 [Highlit: Venus, Earth, The Moon, Mars, five (non-Ceriese) asteroids and Titan]
:[Row 8: Definition:] Regolithic: Anything covered in dirt and ice and stuff is a planet [Number:] [infinity symbol] [Highlit: Mercury, Venus, Earth, The Moon, Mars, Ceres and across all other asteroids from the Asteroid Belt, the moons of Jupiter, the moon(!) of Saturn, the moons of Uranus, the moon of Neptune, Pluto and Charon, all remaining dwarf planets and their moons]
:[Row 9: Definition:] Lunar: You can't be a planet if you don't have a moon [Number:] 12+ [Highlit: Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and three(!) of the other dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt]
:[Row 10: Definition:] Solipsitic: Earth is the only planet [Number:] 1 [Highlit: The Earth]
:[Row 11: Definition:] Judgemental: Only the prettiest ones are planets [Number:] 6 [Highlit: The Earth, Jupiter and one of its moons (not identified), Saturn, one of ''two'' Saturnian moons in this image and Pluto]
:[Row 12: Definition:] Empiricist: Only worlds that I, author of this table, have personally seen are planets [Number:] 12 [Highlit: Mercury, Venus, The Earth, The Moon, Mars Jupiter and its four moons, Saturn and Uranus]
:[Row 13: Definition:] Marine biologist: Only objects with oceans are planets [Number:] 6+ [Highlit: The Earth, three Jovian moons, the two illustrated Saturnian moons]
:[Row 14: Definition:] Maritime: Only objects with [next word in italics] surface oceans are planets [Number:] 2 [Highlit: The Earth and Titan]
:[Row 15: Definition:] Universalist: They're all planets [Number:] [infinity symbol] [Highlit: All drawn objects, including The Sun and all moons]
:[Row 16: Definition:] Existantialist: What if space [next word in italics] itself is a planet??? [Word, in italics:] Duude [Highlit: The whole third column cell]
:[Row 17: Definition:] Spiteful: [next word in italics] Only Pluto is a planet [Number:] 1 [Highlit: Pluto]

==Trivia==
*The 'Judgemental' definition has 7 colored objects instead of the labelled 6.
*[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/6/66/20250314195557%21planet_definitions_2x.png The initially released version of the comic] had two errors that were later fixed:
**The 'Traditionalist' definition had Neptune's satellite {{w|Triton (moon)|Triton}} colored instead of Pluto.
**The 'Modern' definition had Pluto colored as a 9th planet. It appears that the images for 'Traditionalist' and 'Modern' were swapped.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Comics edited after their publication]]

Countdown in header text

2024-11-02T19:14:46Z

172.68.205.165: What?

{{comic
| date = January 10, 2022
| title = Countdown in header text
| image = Countdown_in_header_text_full_animation.gif
| before = | ldomain = www
| lappend =
| extra = yes
}}
{{TOC}}
* The [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/21/Countdown_in_header_text_clock_migration.gif countdown] lasted 21 days and the last image appeared in the header text after the end on January 31, 2022. It was not a permanent part of the header, and was removed once the [[Header text|header text]] was changed to the [[Header text#2022-01-31_-_What_if.3F_2|''What If? 2'' promotion]].

==Explanation==
*On January 10th 2022, [[Randall]] added a countdown in the top right corner of the [[Header text|header text]] on {{xkcd}}.
**It turned out that it was a countdown to the reveal of Randall's new book [https://xkcd.com/what-if-2/ what if? 2] which was announced at the end of the countdown.
***The full title: What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
***The Hardcover version is released September 13, 2022.
***A follow up on his first book based on his blog ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]''
*The comic [[2575: What If? 2]] was released moments after the counter reached zero.
**A comic entirely devoted to promote the book.
***And then the [[Header text#2022-01-31_-_What_if.3F_2|header changed]] to promote the book directly.
*The counter began while the comic [[2565: Latency]] was up.
**First the xkcd Header text was [[Header text#2022-01-08_-_Back_to_standard_text|changed back]] to the [[Header text#Header_text|standard text]] for the first time in almost three years:
***xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
**But already while this Friday-comic was still up on the following Monday the [[Header text#2022-01-10_-_Standard_text_with_countdown|countdown]] was added.
***This was thus up when the Monday comic [[2566: Decorative Constants]] was released, drawing more people to the xkcd page.
*The first [[#Archived Versions|archived version]] from [https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] read 20d 20h 27m.
**It looks like it started on [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ 01-10 17:00 UTC].
***At that time it would have read 20d 21h 59 min. Just two hours and 1 minute short of 3 weeks.
*The countdown reached zero on Monday 2022-01-31 at 15:00 (3:00 PM) {{w|UTC}}, or 10:00 AM in Boston, Randall's home town.
**Seconds was added for the last 10 minutes making the countdown end exactly at 15:00 UTC
***When the seconds counter replaced the day counter at that time the box started [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/64/Countdown_in_header_text_last_minute_wiggling.gif jiggling around].
*The second day of countdown on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220111153818/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-11] a diagonal black bar appeared in the lower left-hand corner of the countdown box and started to move further into the image on following changes to the [[#Images|image]].
**This development called for the creation of this dedicated [[Countdown in header text]] page.
**The line had already moved further into the image at this time, but the latest version will never be available in the web archive.
***This development is reminiscent of the huge comic [[1190: Time]].
***The images was uploaded [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ here] on munvoseli's page where comparison of two images and an animation can be seen.
*During the three weeks this page was used to collect [[Countdown_in_header_text#Theories|theories]] of both the image and the countdown.
**Since these are now all either proved wrong or wright, they are only left here below to document how much people though about it.
***They have been collapsed, to not take up too much space, but can be accessed by pressing the link.
*Randall has previously made a comic simply called [[1159: Countdown]].
**However, in that the roles are reversed.
***There we know that the countdown is for (Super Volcano) but not if it will happen soon or very much later.
***Here we know when, and it is rather soon, but not what.

===Blow up by Amazon===
*The day before the countdown reached zero a user found out that:
**'''Amazon revealed the news a day too early.'''
***The book could be found on Amazon on [https://web.archive.org/web/20220130094958/https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525537112 2022-01-30] with the book cover clearly showing the part of the image shown in the box. And thus the surprise was lost on those using this page.
***Here is the page with [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525537112 what if? 2], the above link shows that the page existed the day before the count down ended.
**A shame for Randall and his fans.
***Although some of his fans had invested a lot of time in trying to solve the puzzle before the countdown ended and were excited by the discovery.

==Images==
*The 136 frames that made up the countdown have been put on this separate page: [[Countdown in header text/images]].
**The images was mainly downloaded [https://munvoseli.github.io/xkcd-countdown/ here] on munvoseli's page.
***On that page it is possible to compare two images, chosen between those released, on that page!
***From 2022-01-14 it has also been possible to see an animation.
****But after the last frame was released a user on this page has kindly provided a gif animation we could add to the top of the page.
**See more details at the top of the image page.
*Other images that also show the clock, compare two images, or show how the page actually looks have been moved to this other page: [[Countdown in header text/other images]].
*After the first thirteen different frames, it was noted that not only did the first three empty frames looks the same (because the diagonal bar was not in the frame yet), but the seventh and the eighth frame where also the same, even though the bar had already begun moving across the frame from the fourth. This could have been on purpose but could also be a mistake.
**However, the images that look the same all have individual addresses on the xkcd server. See more here [[Countdown in header text/images]]
***Later for instance frames 91 and 92 also seem to be exactly the same. Also frame 92 did not upload as part of the roughly four hour schedule, but between two frames that are part of the regular schedule.
***And the second to last frame 135 was also the same as 134, even though they had different names all 136 frames.

===Extra pages for images===
*Two pages has been made to collect images of the countdown:
**One for all the 136 frames:
***[[Countdown in header text/images]]
**And one for other images showing also the countdown clock, and comparison between images etc.
***[[Countdown in header text/other images]]

==Ongoing image description==
*The counter [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/21/Countdown_in_header_text_clock_migration.gif moved upwards] during most of the countdown, to cover less of the revealed image. See more [[Countdown_in_header_text/other_images#Changing_counter_position|here]]
*Here is a description made as the image progressed, and no one knew what it would turn in to, until the very last few days.
** Frames 1-12: A diagonal line.
** Frame 13: A curve seems to begin at the top left of the line.
** Frame 18: The curve connects the diagonal line with a horizontal line.
** Frame 27-28: A new line appears in the bottom left corner.
** Frame 40-42: The new line turns out to be connected to the horizontal line, forming a corner which is not attached to any other line.
** Frame 49: The "camera movement" direction changes, while the object is still moving upward it stopped moving towards the left side, moving towards the right instead.
** Frame 54: A slight upward curve seems to appear in the right line, the left line seems to have a small bend downwards, though that could at that point just be a straight line that Randall drew without a ruler.
** Frame 60-62: A new line appears in the bottom right corner, it turns out to be a continuation of the first original line which curves upward and has a positive slope at that point of the picture, between about 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock. The downward bend of the left line continues on straight in the same direction, it was probably an intentional bend and not an irregularity in drawing a straight line by hand.
** Frame 63: In the minimum of the right curved line a new line starts appearing, way thinner than the others (which were up to this point all rather part of one line) and going slightly downwards and very much to the left, at an angle somewhere between 8 o'clock and 9 o'clock.
** Frame 67: A possible feature becomes visible at the bottom edge of the image that might resolve the exact nature of the (currently presumed) aircraft, e.g. which particular aerodynamic surface we have been seeing and thus from which particular orientation we are viewing it.
** Frame 68-72 makes it clear this must be an aircraft by showing windows and a door and clearly the tail fin. As late as frame 69 some people argued that the tail fin could have been a wing.
** Frame 73-83 brings a horizontal stabilizer into view.
** Frame 87-89: A new curved line appears on the underside of the (presumed) aircraft, so there either is something behind it or it might not be an aircraft.
** Frame 96-99: An arc is coming into view in the upper right corner, likely the top edge of a cloud.
*** Turned out not to be a cloud.
** Frame 101-106 seems to be some kind of radar on top of the plane, like the one on {{w|Boeing E-3 Sentry}}. Or alternatively this plane is hanging beneath another plane. Not looking at all like {{w|Spaceshiptwo}}, but something similar, which could make this plane a spaceplane?
** Frame 106-114 a new element of the image appears on the right side, it could be the end of a wing. The arch no longer looks like a radar. Could be the tail of a Dinosaur or the cape of someone riding the airplane...
*** a cape is unlikely as it would probably be drawn to flap in the wind. The other element does appear to be a wingtip
*** Could it be [[Cory Doctorow]] flying with the airplane, but much closer to the 'camera'?
** Frame 115-121 makes it clear that the newest addition at the bottom right is the wing tip of the plane. The black curve above the plane still mostly looks like a tail as on a dinosaur or dragon. Could also be a tentacle. Either from an [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b5/1608_1038x1094y_Giant_octopus_in_Destroyer.pngv octopus] or from and alien like in [[2572: Alien Observers]]. Of course it could also be a cape, but seems too thick at the end...
** Frame 124 shows something beneath the plane, but already in 125, that makes one of the largest jumps between pictures so far, this is clearly one of the wheels on the landing gear. Also the hind leg of the Dinosaur whose tail has been visible long time is coming in to view. Not certain yet it is a dino (probably a velociraptor), but the leg makes it the number one candidate.
** Frames 126-127 almost confirm the dinosaur theory.
*** And at this time someone spotted the new What if? 2 book on Amazon and it is the Tyrannosaur from the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' blog that is now eating a plane rather than being lowered into the Sarlac.
** Frame 134 reveals the last part of the plane, so now the entire plane and T-rex is visible. This was about 6 hours before the countdown ended.
** Frame 135 is identical with 134!
** About ten minutes before the countdown ended the image started to wiggle and as predicted seconds also came in, leaving out the day part of the counter.
** Frame 136 came just after the countdown ended, turning the background red, as it is on the front cover of the book adding the title what if? 2 in white text beneath the plane, which as now been moved to the top of the image since the overlaid count down is now gone.

==Theories==
*'''Amazon revealed the news a day too early!''' - it is Randall's new book [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525537112 what if? 2] that will be announced at the end of the countdown.
**So it is a book announcement, and the picture is Tyrannosaur eating a plane while in flight.
*Here below are the different theories for what the countdown was for and what the picture was going to reveal from before it was clear what it was.

===The picture===
*Theories about the picture:
**One of the very early theories got it right:
***The second line makes it look somewhat like the tail fin of an aircraft.
'''Click to expand for more theories:'''
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
**From 2022-01-21 it became certain that it was a plane! Passenger plane. Door and windows are visible.
***From 2022-01-22 it became clear that it was the rear end, so it was a tailfin that came into the panel to begin with. Up til the day before it was still a bit uncertain if it could have been a wing.
*** from 2022-01-24 a bottom line has appeared which doesn't fit well with a 'standard' airliner. perhaps the image is deliberately misleading (eg will transform into something else)
*** From 2022-01-26 something looking like a radar like the one on a {{w|Boeing E-3 Sentry}} began emerging in the top right corner.
*** From 2022-01-28 it looks like an elephant's trunk to me.
**What will this lead up to - theories about this.
***It could be an airplane with a banner like in [[1355: Airplane Message]].
****That would very soon be clear as the bottom part of the rear end seems to be coming into view during 2022-01-24, if the direction does not change again.
*****This is now ruled out, since the plane is clearly not towing a banner.
***It could end up landing in a city, perhaps with a skyline pinpointing where Randall will be or move.
****However, unlikely to manage this in real life as the count down ends.
****Also, very unlikely (1 in 60, or even 1 in 3600) that such a landing would occur exactly on the hour.
*****But it could also just be the time when he announces he has moved...
***Maybe Cueball will make a parachute jump, and Cueball could represent a real life Randall, as this could in principle be timed very accurately.
****This is something you would schedule a month or more ahead, want to tell people about in advance, want to make a big deal about on your website, is not quite as bizarre as zero-G and probably more fun {{citation needed}}, could be done with an adventurous wife, explains why it’s the tail of the plane in the image, and (assuming no mechanical, medical, or meteorological problems, a safe assumption), might go something like “on my mark, it’ll be 9:59:56 A.M. in Boston... mark. 3, 2, 1, JUMP!” Maybe it’ll be just Cueball/Randall, but could more likely include Megan representing his wife.
****However, it could very easily be that the weather in January could foil the attempt, or at least the timing.
****The plane appears to be a commercial jetliner, though, rather than the small prop planes used for parachute jumps. Unless, of course, Randall is revealing his real identity has been Wesley Snipes all along
****The plane appears to have its landing gear down, which rules out a parachute jump.
*****At frame 124 it is a bit early to say that the dot beneath the plane is the landing gear, but from 125 it became clear. Also seems like the leg of the dino on the plane has come into vies. The below was written before number 125 came out.
*****Landing gear implies that the aircraft is either taking off or landing, and judging by the plane's nose-up attitude, most likely taking off. Therefore, assuming that the plane is in fact shown seconds after rotation (possibly still on the ground), there is a possibility that the black object could be an airport fixture, perhaps a wind sock in the foreground?
******Well, forget I said that. It's a dinosaur apparently.
*** Perhaps the new item on top of the plane is the tail of a dinosaur? perhaps like the one on the cover of "what if..." book. perhaps it's a new book?
*** There are two flights originating in Boston departing at 09:59 on 1/31/2022: Spirit NK433 to Orlando Florida and Delta DL5696 to Washington D.C.
***Frame 101-106 seems to be some kind of radar on top of the plane, like the one on Boeing E-3 Sentry. Or alternatively this plane is hanging beneath another plane. Not looking at all like Spaceshiptwo, but something similar, which could make this plane a spaceplane?
**** Predicting dinosaur
***** Cross-referencing it with the cover of ''What If?'', this does seem like a xkcd-style dinosaur tail. It could represent Randall, or xkcd as a whole, going somewhere. Or it could just be the cover of a new book.
******Yep, it's a dinosaur.
**** Revising my prior theory: It now looks very much like another aircraft (similar to theory below) but not part of the main aircraft, I think. I would guess it is either an improbable mid-air encounter (like a passenger jet and an ultra-lite) or an equally improbable "launch" of something from the jet (again like an ultra-lite or some other less common or even fictional craft.)
**** Maybe the torch of the Statue of Liberty?
**** The black wave looks like a superhero cape
**** the white element overlapping the fuselage could be the start of the wing-tip these fold up at the ends of many modern aircraft, could mean aircraft is banking left.
***Frame 107-121 the right wing of the plane moves into view. It is still unclear if the black curve is a tail, a cape or a tentacle. But seems like it cannot be another aircraft.
***Has now been resolved.
**Maybe it will be the entire book, or at least include the text 'what if? 2', and that more rapid zoom-out will happen during the last minutes.
***Since the entire plane is revealed with at least two more possible updates, even in 4 hours schedule, something new may certainly be expected to occur before the end of the countdown. This written after frame 134 that revealed the front of the plane.
*The XKCD store currently reports "will be opening soon" [https://store.xkcd.com/] perhaps any announcement will be simultaneous with a store re-launch.

====Early theories====
*Many early theories were generated before the picture was decisively revealed to be a plane...
*It seems after two days and 12 pictures like either something is moving into the frame or that it is a zoom out from a white area of a large picture. Maybe it is the arm of Cueball that will come into view.
*The second line makes it look somewhat like the tail fin of an aircraft.
**Or the wing of an aircraft (left if looking down at it). Perhaps the plane is towing a banner that will fly through the frame.
***After almost a week this looks like the most promising suggestion so far. Now that the direction of the camera movement has changed, we might get to see the rest of the aircraft soon.
****From picture 63, it more and more seems like it was the tail fin of a plane and now we can see the body.
*****It's almost certainly the tail (and now a bit of the rear fuselage) of an aircraft.
******It could just as easily be the left wing and part of the fuselage (showing windows on the right side of an airliner), with the tail fin out of view to the rear, as being the tail fin from an angle where the left wing is out of view behind the fuselage.
*******judging by the relative size of the (presumed) windows, I think it's more likely to be the left wing than the tail fin.
*******Based on the way planes are drawn in [[1868: Eclipse Flights]]. [[1355: Airplane Message]] and [[1669: Planespotting]], plane wings have a point on their edge and tail fins have a flat side, and (if a line is present) a thick line separates wings from the body, whereas thin lines or no lines separate tail fins, so this is a tail fin.
*******In the bottom left there appears to be the top part of a horizontal stabilizer, implying this is the tail.
********It’s a tail fin, that’s finally clear, but that’s the underside of the stabilizer. Which means this would be the best angle to view Cueball/Randall parachuting out of that door, something that would be predictable to the exact minute (barring all kinds of things that could go wrong).
*******Appears to be a door to the left of the windows
*******It could be an airplane with a banner like in [[1355: Airplane Message]]
***Tail of a space shuttle, perhaps?
****While I think Randall would've also drawn in the signature black part of the rudder, the shape fits perfectly
****Timing is close (though not exact) to the Columbia disaster anniversary (2003-02-01 1359 UTC)
***I'm thinking the tail of a Zeppelin.
****Although those normally have longer tail fins.
*Maybe it is some kind of vehicle rolling into frame, like a car?
*Or the word xkcd? (or xkcd 2?)
*Could have been "Hangman", but it looks like it's zooming in on the diagonal instead of continuing to make a gibbet.
*With the new second line appearing in the corner as of frame 28 it looks like it's definitely zooming out of an image. It looks like it could be someone's arm in a running position.
*I think it could also be two legs of a reclining stick person.
*The lines suggest a shark fin and the movement would suggest it swimming across the frame.
**If it was a shark fin, then the most likely candidates would be the first dorsal fin and the pectoral fin, but both end in points rather than edges like in the pictures of the header puzzle. An aircraft tail fin still seems most likely.
*Maybe it's a two-dimensional shape viewed from a weird angle?
**Like a rectangle viewed from a floating, tilted perspective
**Or the top of the k in xkcd
**Or a boat dock?
*The r/xkcd subreddit produced some early theories :
**Cueball's arm
**The letter D, as in "The End"
**A spider's web, in reference to comic 1688
***With the airplane revelation, this reference turned into a meme in the subreddit, where users tried to justify the presence of an airplane shape inside a bigger-scope spider picture
***More generally, "spider" is now jokingly used nearly each time in place of "airplane" during discussions on the sub
****For example, the final image is generally described as "a dinosaur eating a spider"
***Some joke theories included:
****A giant spider flinging airplanes from the sky, as a new potential "What If?"
****The lines are a web and the apparent windows the eyes of a giant spider
****The airplane is a complex-looking spider leg, and 8 of them form a spider
***Another redditor made the airplane part of a dragon's head
</div>
 

===Countdown===
*Theories about the countdown:
**One of the early theories got it right:
***Randall's next book, either the countdown is counting down to the start of promotion or it is released when the countdown ends.
'''Click to expand for more theories:'''
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
*Several have already been mentioned in the discussion:
**Maybe Randall is going on vacation?
**As of now - 22-Jan-2022 7am PST - the countdown disappeared from some users browser. Temporarily (perhaps to make the image cleaner?) or permanently? The countdown was back up soon after. probably a glitch and maybe not for all places or browsers.
**Randall's next book, either the countdown is counting down to the start of promotion or it is released when the countdown ends.
***Usually Randall has made month long [[:Category:Book promotion|book promotions]] before release. So if it is the release day it is a new way to do it. But he will get a lot of attention. If it is just the start of promoting it, people might get disappointed…
****For instance he began promoting his [[Header text#2015-05-14_-_New_book_Thing_Explainer|new book Thing Explainer]] in the header text. That was in May 2015 and the book was first released [https://blog.xkcd.com/2015/05/13/new-book-thing-explainer/ late November 2015]. Most of this time the header text was promoting the book.
***The day before the announcement a user posted a link in the discussion with a book listing for [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525537112 what if? 2] on Amazon showing more or less the picture revealed at this time, thus ending the debate as to what the image and the countdown was for.
**{{w|James Webb Space Telescope}} (JWST) going into orbit about L2 {{w|Lagrange point}}.
***Randall has already made several comics about the telescope. The latest [[2564: Sunshield]] was released just five days prior to the countdown was started.
***But the telescope will not reach the point but rather go into a large orbit around it, so a precise timer counting down to it seems a bit farfetched.
***On NASA's page on JWST it seems like it will [https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/deploymentExplorer.html#25 go into orbit] 29.5 days after its [[December 25th Launch]], on Christmas Day, so it should have already started the orbit by the 23rd or 24th of January - 8 days before the countdown.
***Also No based on the image.
**{{w|Lunar New Year}}
***In China it starts on February 1st and a [https://yourcountdown.to/chinese-new-year countdown for China] is 8 hours behind.
****The South Korean time zone is UTC+9, hence 14:59 UTC = 23:59 in South Korea, one minute to Feb 1.
*****But it's weird if Randall that has basically never mentioned this holiday suddenly makes a three week countdown for it, and why choose South Korea when most would think of China in this context…?
**Randall will stop making xkcd (Goodbye in the image).
***Hopefully not.
****Agreed, {{tvtropes|PoisonOakEpilepticTrees|to be avoided}}
***It might be a temporary stop (hiatus).
**[https://nationaldaycalendar.com/backward-day-january-31/ National Backward Day]
***This is not a day mentioned on Wikipedia at the time of release of the countdown, so seems unlikely.
**Maybe it will be an announcement of xkcd 2, a new and improved version for… some reason?
***Seems unlikely…
**{{w|Black History Month}}. The {{w|Greensboro sit-ins}} started on Feb 1 1960. Black History Month also begins on February 1st, also in 2022.
***But this countdown stops early on January 31st so seems unlikely.
***However, before changing the Header recently it was about [[Header text#2020-06-03_-_Black_Lives_Matter|Black Lives Matter]] for more than 1.5 years, first ending on December 20th 2021, less than a month before the countdown began. In between that there was a short Christmas sale reminder until a week into 2022. So it could just be another way of reminding of us the issues faced by black people in the US.
****If this was true, I feel like it would be simpler to just change back to the Black Lives Matter text at the top of the screen. Also, it seems increasingly likely as of Jan. 20th that the image is some kind of plane, which doesn't really have much to do with Black History Month (that I know of?)
**The accompanying header says specifically "xkcd updates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday"--maybe the countdown is to the reveal of a new update schedule?
***Very unlikely. This was the standard header for a long time. It was used when Randall had nothing better to say. But with all his books and the trouble in US with elections and BLM, he has used the header as a platform most of the time many years now. So the standard text is rare. But he did return it for two days before adding the count down, making it seem just like normal.
***A guess is that it returned to this, so the header text did not take any focus away from the countdown.
**[[:Category:Red Spiders|Red spider]] attack?
***Un-Likely
**He will become a father - could be a planned C-section.
***As this is unpredictable, and could go wrong, then this would be a dangerous countdown, people can be very superstitious, even if scientist.
**As it currently looks (after a [[1070: Words for Small Sets|few days]] into the countdown) it may be a trip he is taking by plane.
***Maybe going somewhere people could meet him.
****Book tour?
***Moving a long way from home (down under or the like).
****Maybe he's moving to Japan? Could be a plane, and the time zone would fit, at least.
*****Then the countdown would be until when the plane lands, not to midnight.
******What has time zones to do with this clock? It counts down to the same time all over the world, and will reach zero at the same time no matter what time zone you are in.
******Time zones have to do with where it will be midnight when the countdown reaches zero. If it's a countdown to when January ends (a moment before February begins), then it's until that moment in the time zone where the countdown reaches zero at that time.
******* According to my calculations, the timer will coincide with midnight in the UTC+9 time zone, encompassing both Koreas, Japan, and small parts of Russia and Indonesia.
****If it is a plane, then maybe it will land in a new city Randall moves to when the counter ends, and the skyline will be visible...
**Perhaps it's a start to a new series like [[1190: Time]].
***It is already a series that works like Time, so seems unlikely.
**Zero-G flight, really looks like plane to me.
***Could be time he will first go weightless which could be fairly well known except for bad weather
**A parachute jump by Randall. Could be predicted as well as the zero G.
**How about the [https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/09/09/star-trek-picard-season-2-release-date-plot-cast/ new series of Picard]?
***{{w|Star Trek: Picard (season 2)}} is set to run from March 3 2022, which both Wikipedia (link before) and [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8806524/episodes?season=2 IMDb] agrees upon so bad to miss by more than a month, and what would the plane in the image have to do with this anyway?
***So No!
** The xkcd world tour!! I wish
** I'm beginning to see another part of the picture entering into view, underneath the arc and above the body of the plane. To me, it looks like it could be a leg of sorts (Early bet: it could be a dinosaur)
**Maybe something to do with aliens? Randall posted two comics about aliens secretly observing earth in a row now, could that be related?
** DB Cooper's jump from an airliner was 50 years ago, but not until november
*** Maybe Randall admits that he was DB Cooper all along?
</div>
 

===count-wimRikmef===
* The identifier of the script contains what is probably an acronym, but for what?
** count / wim (?) / Rik (name) & me f(light)
** Or it's just the output of whatever js minimizer was used.
** R = Randall?
** Randall is travelling to Germany? "Wo ist mein Reisepass? Ich komme mit einem Flug"
** "wi" are the initials for the book that's coming out
*** so what could mRikmef be?
** So the first two letters are what if, maybe the R is for Rex, and the f is flight, not sure about the others?
*** "what if" could be a good shout, the dino on the plane reminds me of the cover of the first "what if", and a raptor attack/snakes on a plane crossover would make for some great what-if analysis
* The "img" tag has a misspelled "heigth" attribute. Probably just a typo?

==Archived Versions==
*Here is a list of the versions that has been saved to the web archive during the countdown.
**The counter in that version is written behind the date of the web archive.
**Note that the counter is active on the archived version counting minutes down from the start. Some of the versions almost changing the minutes just after loading. But it will always count from the time given here:
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220110183238/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] 20d 20h 27m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220110214138/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-10] 20d 17h 18m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220111011115/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-11] 20d 13h 48m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220112005828/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-12] 19d 14h 1m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220113044552/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-13] 18d 10h 14m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220114010759/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-14] 17d 13h 51m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220114195624/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-14] 16d 19h 3m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220115052737/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-15] 16d 9h 32m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220116074923/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-16] 15d 7h 10m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220116225217/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-16] 14d 16h 7m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220118050255/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-18] 13d 9h 57m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220118195259/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-18] 12d 19h 6m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220119213308/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-19] 11d 17h 26m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220120103559/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-20] 11d 4h 23m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220120235630/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-20] 10d 15h 3m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220121023331/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-21] 10d 12h 26m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220121102349/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-21] 10d 4h 36m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220122002328/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-22] 9d 14h 36m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220122034744/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-22] 9d 11h 12m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220122223018/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-22] 8d 16h 29m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220123153950/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-23] 7d 23h 20m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220123231820/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-23] 7d 15h 41m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220124200931/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-24] 6d 18h 50m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220125064825/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-25] 6d 8h 11m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220126002713/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-26] 5d 14h 32m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220126175842/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-26] 4d 21h 1m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220127173721/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-27] 3d 21h 22m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220128225119/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-28] 2d 16h 8m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220129024550/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-29] 2d 12h 14m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220129232926/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-29] 1d 15h 30m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220130190609/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-30] 0d 19h 53m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220131124817/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-01-31] 0d 2h 11m
#[https://web.archive.org/web/20220201000434/https://xkcd.com/ 2022-02-01] The day after (0d -9h -5m / -1d 14h 55m)

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Meta]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Design of xkcd.com]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]]

Talk:2995: University Commas

2024-10-12T15:50:19Z

172.68.205.165:

As Wikipedia notes, the {{w|Harvard comma}} is actually a thing, and synonymous with the Oxford comma. It's hard to understand whether Randall was just ignoring that.
It's interesting to also look at how the various commas are meaningful. For instance, the Yale comma here appears to be just plain ungrammatical, you'd never put a comma between a verb and a its direct object; similarly the Cambridge comma and Princeton commas are ungrammatical, you'd never put one after the word "and." The Stanford comma is unambiguously normal and it's not clear how you could have such a list without it (absent replacement with a [Stanford?] semicolon). The Columbia comma is being used to separate "mac and cheese" into "mac, and[,] cheese" which changes the semantic meaning (arguably into something meaningless, but maybe we're listing Apple Computers or even Macintosh apple fruit abbreviated). The MIT comma is a cute programming joke for multiline lists. Maybe there are hidden trick meanings (like MIT) I'm missing. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 23:03, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
:On their own, few of them are intrinsically bad, in the right context.
:*"Please, buy" - valid comma. Prefixed subclause (general plea).
:*"Please buy, apples" - valid comma (more specific plea).
:*"apples, mac" - valid comma (list-type).
:*"mac, and" - valid comma (potentially a conjunctive sub-clause).
:*"mac and, cheese" - valid comma (potentially a post-conjunctive sub-clause).
:*"and cheese, milk" - valid comma (follow-up sub-clause).
:*"cheese, milk, and" - Oxford comma. (Thus invalid, by default. IMO.)
:*"milk and, bread." - ...would be valid, as above, except for the sentence ending.
:*"and bread,." - Ok. Definitely the worst. (Except for the Oxford Comma, which is still worserer!)
:Obviously, combinations of them (or counterpart lack of them, in some cases) can clash badly. Some can work well together, but using ()s, ;s or feetnete* is often better than diving in and out of sub-clauses in the midst of a comma-bound list and potentially making it ambiguous whether you're diving in/out of a clarifying aside or replacing a non-terminating conjunction or perhaps one of the other usages to which a comma might apply.
:* Or just generally rewriting a multi-clausal sentence completely! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 23:30, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
::Sorry, no: "and," is bad grammar, except when illustrating a dramatic (but grammatically wrong) verbal pause; ", and" is fine for noting a pause used to divide a list, but it's best to use semicolons in a divided list. IE: "milk; bread; mac and cheese; blood, sweat, and tears". (Again, "blood, sweat and tears", would be atypical cadence if spoken aloud; therefore, the comma.) I don't care what style guides say, only what works well.
::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:11, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
:::What's grammatically wrong about something like "I drink beer and, on occasion, cider"?
::::Thank you for the "and, on occasion, beer and cider" example. Looking only at the given sentence about a shopping list, I wondered if the subordinate clause suggestion was edit-mangle or a very strange dialect difference. [[User:JimJJewett|JimJJewett]] ([[User talk:JimJJewett|talk]]) 02:34, 12 October 2024 (UTC)
:::::It wasn't "and, on occasion, beer and cider" given as an example. It was "[I drink] beer and, on occasion, cider". Depending upon what comes before the "and,", it ''might'' be the same sort of thing, but "beer and, on occasion, cider" probably is intended to mean "... beer (mostly) and cider (occasionally)". Your vesion might be somethng like "I drink beer, cider and, on occasion, beer and cider" => "I drink beer (frequently), cider (frequently) and a beer-and-cider-mix (occasionally)".
:::::(Noting that I've never tried mixing beer and cider, although I have done it with wine and cider. Long story. Though mostly it was mixed in my stomach, not pre-mixed. Probably made me the absolute drunkest I ever have been, but the effects took more time to take effect than those who were deliberately plying me with the drink(s) counted on, so their 'plan' sort of failed... I was younger and foolisher, but so were they! These days, I prefer my beer (typically a bitter, maybe a stout, generally not lagers/etc) unblended in any way. The same with my whisky (single malt, and in preference to whiskey). And wine's fine, but with a meal. Don't really go for ciders these days. If I want something appley, I prefer fruit juice, and if I want something fizzy (not all ciders are fizzy, but most of the major ones are) then give me a Pepsi Max (or something similar - I love the taste of aspartame in the morning!). But I rarely mix anything more than cordial/concentrate and water.)
:::::As to how people mangle/dialectise subordinate clauses, I couldn't say. I think it's grammatically odd to say "Write me!" (for "Write '''to''' me!), ''or'' to say "lit it on fire" (I'd just say that I "lit it", or "set fire to it"), so there's probably some strangeness of expectations between sublinguistic jurisdictions. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.165|172.68.205.165]] 15:50, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

:::Also, the cadence of "blood, sweat and tears" has nothing to do with the commas you give it. This isn't a case of marking verbal ticks, with... uh... transcribed notation. Either for official recording purposes or in the pre-scripting of speech for later performance. One is free to nuance the phrase how you want, with or without OC. The main issue about the OC is whether a list (of ''more'' than two items) should have each (non-final) element followed by a comma? Or are commas placeholders only for the "and"/"or"s that are omited? (And my opinion is that it is the latter, all else being equal. I apply that to semicolon-separated lists, insofar as I won't end with "...; penultimate item; '''and'' last item", but prefer to omit the '''and''' (or '''or'' ), casting whether it's a list of options or an accumulation by the introductory/follow-up contextualisation of that list.)
:::But, whichever standard you prefer, there will be cases where it reads wrongly to others. If you're lucky enough to spot it, then you can look to what you can do to adjust the sentence to remove ambiguity. This does not normally mean adding in any old commas where,,,,, you think a Pinter Pause is needed. (Maybe an ellipsis, in normal writing.) The fact that a grammatical comma may be where a spoken pause may crop up is not because the comma causes the pause. The verbal pause is (if not garbled out) caused by the same understanding of how clauses/etc require intoning under the circumstances.
:::But it is a rhetorical choice as to whether to intone "blood..., sweat... and tears" or "blood, sweat and... tears" or any number of other pausing strategies, as it is how you faithfully transcribe what has already been intoned. When merely listing these in text, your chosen style of grammar is the master. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.134|172.70.160.134]] 19:44, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

::Commas can go in a number of places in lists, and, occasionally, after the word "and". [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 23:34, 7 October 2024 (UTC)
::Potentially, anything is possible... I can see how a sentence like "Please buy apples, mac and cheese, milk, and, bread being out of stock, oats" would work, but I really don't see how the commas after "and" could work ''in this sentence''. [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 08:34, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

If each item in a list shall be followed by a comma then the MIT comma is quite proper. SDT [[Special:Contributions/172.68.245.206|172.68.245.206]] 05:11, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

The UCLA comma may refer to the 8 clap, a chant at UCLA which is begins with a string of 8 claps. {{unsigned ip|172.68.205.178|07:33, 8 October 2024}}

I thought the UCLA & Michigan commas referred to quotes within citations. This isn't uncommon in literary studies, where you quote articles quoting books. Depending on your quotation style, this can result in a long string of 3-4 "commas" (as in: short lines in punctuation marks). If you place the quote between actual commas, make that 4-5. [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 08:34, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

I think the tirade against the Oxford comma in the article is not relevant for understanding the comic. "'To my mother, Ayn Rand and God' does not" is not saying that Ayn Rand is the mother. To express that one should write "To my mother, Ayn Rand, and to God". Thus the ambiguity can be resolved. I believe one of the editors is mixing in their personal taste here. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.71|172.71.160.71]] 09:03, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
:Tirade? Hardly. It explains when it doesn't help (and when it might).
:And I think you misread. "'To my mother, Ayn Rand and God' does not" indeed does not say that Ayn Rand is the mother. In fact it ''explicitly'' says that "'To my mother, Ayn Rand and God'"... erm... does ''not'' say the thing that 'To my mother, Ayn Rand, and God' ''potentially'' does. (See table below.)
:The choice of how to disambiguate "my mother, who is Ayn Rand", as a concept, is another thing and has multiple options. Disambiguating in the direction of a simple list is the contention surrounding the Oxford(/Serial) Comma itself (it is, by definition, being used in the list format), given that some circumstances are most helped by it and others are most helped by its absence. If you're strongly for the OC, you'll hopefully rewrite problematic OCed formulations so that you can use it. If you're strongly against it you should change problamatic non-OCed versions so that you can better go without one. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.128|172.70.85.128]] 10:21, 8 October 2024 (UTC)

Inspired (a bit) by the Three Laws permutation table, a set of possible ambiguations from the straight list...
{| class="wikitable"
!A !!B !!C !!"A, B and C" !!"A, B, and C"
|-
|my parents||Ayn Rand||God||"my parents (who are Ayn Rand and God)"||''list only''*
|-
|my parents||God||Ayn Rand||"my parents (who are God and Ayn Rand)"||''list only''*
|-
|Ayn Rand||my parents||God||''list only''* ||''list only''*
|-
|Ayn Rand||God||my parents||''list only''* ||"Ayn Rand (who is God), and my parents"
|-
|God||my parents||Ayn Rand||''list only''* ||''list only''*
|-
|God||Ayn Rand||my parents||''list only''* ||"God (who is Ayn Rand), and my parents"
|}
:-* - Assuming no other "All You Zombies" and/or divine incarnation scenarios.
:...maybe it's too early in the morning, but I'm sure I'm missing other ambiguities I've commented on before. (Without necesarily going into the asterisked territories.) Anyone want to amend this? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.105|172.68.186.105]] 09:56, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
::Love it! [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 10:14, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
::There's additional potential ambiguity if you go with the singular "my mother" as opposed to the plural "my parents". "My mother, Ayn Rand, and God" (with the Oxford comma) could be listing 2 separate entities while indicating that my mother is Ayn Rand, or could be listing 3 separate entities. "My mother, Ayn Rand and God" (without the Oxford comma) could be referring to a single entity while indicating that my mother is both Ayn Rand and God, or listing 3 separate entities. (In a phrase like, "My mother, Ayn Rand and God, gave it to me," the comma after God indicates that it's one entity, but you lose that clarity with "It was given to me by my mother, Ayn Rand and God." [[Special:Contributions/172.68.70.66|172.68.70.66]] 14:25, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
:::What if my mother, Ayn Rand, and God are actually the trinity?[[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.87|172.69.195.87]] 08:23, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
::::I myself, was fully expecting one of the examples given, to be: "To my God and mother, Ayn Rand". [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 15:15, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

I realize that this comic focuses on University commas, however I feel that some mention should be made about the Walken Comma and the Shatner Comma! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.114.103|172.70.114.103]] 10:57, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
:What, do you,    mean by,   that? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.195.106|172.69.195.106]] 13:29, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
::Here's the explanation: [https://www.joeydevilla.com/2015/06/26/a-visual-guide-to-the-different-comma-styles/ Walken and Shatner Commas] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.228|162.158.62.228]] 11:43, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

{{w|Mac and cheese}} is probably not well-known outside the US (especially not under that name). --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.115|172.71.160.115]] 13:41, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
:As usual, the Brits don't know how to name food. "Macaroni cheese" sounds like the macaroni is made of cheese. But I added an explanation and link to the Wikipedia page. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:30, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
::Don't be silly, that would clearly be named "cheese macaroni". Macaroni cheese is clearly cheese for macaroni, and it's simply polite to serve macaroni to have it with as well. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.151.114|172.71.151.114]] 14:39, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
::: By the logic of your second interpretation, "cheese macaroni" is clearly macaroni for cheese. The lexical existence of this separate form of macaroni begs the question: what kind of macaroni goes best with macaroni cheese? The plain kind or cheese macaroni? The answer is neither! The best kind of macaroni to serve with macaroni cheese is clearly macaroni-cheese macaroni. But then what kind of cheese goes best with that? None other than (macaroni cheese)-macaroni cheese, which in turn is best served with ((macaroni cheese) macaroni)-cheese macaroni. This interleaving of macaroni and cheese never ends, meaning that no matter where you choose to stop, you will always end up with a sub-optimal pairing. So it's best to just not eat any form of cheese with any form of macaroni, to avoid disappointment. As an aside, the logic of your first interpretation implies that "macaroni cheese" is actually cheese that's made of macaroni. [[User:MelodiousThunk|MelodiousThunk]] ([[User talk:MelodiousThunk|talk]]) 12:48, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
::As opposed to 'mac and cheese', which sounds like a particularly unappetising dish made using a waterproof coat.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.92|172.68.186.92]] 15:43, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
::::Oddly, US English goes the other way with "grilled cheese", neglecting to mention that the cheese should be placed between slices of bread before grilling; in British English, it would generally be called a "cheese toastie". (Until looking it up, I was under the mistaken belief that it was a name for what we would call "cheese on toast", which also involves grilling the cheese, on the toast.) - [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] ([[User talk:IMSoP|talk]]) 21:16, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
:'Mac & cheese' is, sadly, probably more common in the UK now than the proper 'macaroni cheese'.[[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.47|141.101.99.47]] 08:25, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

I'm not opposed to the added red text in the Notation column, but it needs to be explained in the Explanation column. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.8|162.158.90.8]] 00:18, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Could this, at least in part, be about typography, not grammar and style? The depicted commas are not all the same. [[User:Divad27182|Divad27182]] ([[User talk:Divad27182|talk]]) 10:42, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Specifically, MIT is the home of the Rust language, which prominently uses trailing commas after the last item in a list as a matter of programming style.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.211|172.70.214.211]]

ABAP uses dots as end-of-command delimiters. {{unsigned ip|162.158.202.92|06:13, 11 October 2024}}

== ! UNRESOLVED VERSION CONFLICT ! ==
There has been a problem with different versions. I shifted a paragraph, but the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2995:_University_Commas&oldid=352624 version that got saved] had 1615 characters less than before. A whole lot of rambling had been removed from the explanation, but there was no version conflict warning and no other saved revision in the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2995:_University_Commas&action=history revision history]. I didn't want to take credit for the changes, though I appreciated them, so I undid my edit, then redid my shift of paragraphs, and hoped that the other editor would reconcile the versions. That didn't happen. I'm writing this note to draw attention to the "lost edit". [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 18:28, 11 October 2024 (UTC)

2781: The Six Platonic Solids

2024-10-02T08:46:50Z

172.68.205.165: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2781
| date = May 26, 2023
| title = The Six Platonic Solids
| image = the_six_platonic_solids_2x.png
| imagesize = 368x370px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Plato made the solids, and five were gifted to the mathematicians. But in secret Plato forged a sixth solid to rule over all the others.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic imagines an alternate reality where mathematicians discover a new {{w|Platonic solid}} beyond the [https://sites.math.washington.edu/~julia/teaching/445_Spring2013/Paper_Euler.pdf five proven to exist in three-dimensional space.] In three dimensions there are 9 {{w|regular polyhedra}}. A regular polyhedron is a solid figure with all faces being congruent regular polygons with the same number of alike faces arranged around each vertex. While the most familiar, Platonic solids, are referenced in the comic, there are also 4 {{w|Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra}}. In four dimensions, there are six {{w|regular polytope}}s, five of which are analogous to the five Platonic solids in 3-D space, and a sixth which is analogous to the {{w|rhombic dodecahedron}}.

In the comic, [[Randall]] reveals the discovery of a new Platonic solid, called the "jorb", which appears to be a roughly conical shape with a round base, a triangular tip, and a rectangular extension at the bottom. One of its surfaces also seems to have parallel grooves or ribs, which may indicate curvature. The jorb does not meet the criteria for a Platonic solid, in that the faces must all be {{w|regular polygon}}s of the same shape, and each vertex must join the same number of edges. Also, Platonic solids were discovered by Plato, who they are named after. A new-found regular polyhedra would not be called a Platonic Solid because it was not discovered by him{{citation needed}}. This could be a reference to the fact that [https://youtube.com/watch?v=_hjRvZYkAgA many regular polyhedra have only been discovered recently], most of which do not fit the naive understanding of a {{w|regular polyhedron}}, having irregular concave external faces, or being infinite or self-intersecting.

The title text references the ''{{w|Lord of The Rings}},'' in which the "One Ring to Rule Them All" was forged in secret by {{w|Sauron}} to control the wearers of three magic rings given earlier to elves, seven given to dwarves, and nine given to humans, primarily by allowing him to know their location, letting him visualize the wearers and their surroundings, and by allowing him to impose his will on the wearers (which for arcane reasons only worked reliably on the rings given to humans, worn by the nine {{w|Nazgûl}}.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OuGOf_IGLA]) The joke is that {{w|Plato}} forged a sixth Platonic solid, the jorb, to rule the five he "gifted" to mathematicians, similarly to how Sauron tried to rule the other magic rings' wearers in Middle-earth with his One Ring.

==Transcript==
:[Six geometrical shapes are shown. All have gray surface areas with different shading to reflect their orientation. There is one shape in the middle with the other five arranged around it roughly in a pentagon. With two at the top, two just below the central and one directly below the central shape. Each shape has a label. The five above the bottom one are names after the platonic solids, and are drawn to look like them. The last one at the bottom has a roughly conical shape with a round base, a triangular tip, and a rectangular extension at the bottom. It surface also seems to have parallel grooves or ribs. Here the labels in reading order with the four rows mentioned above used.]
:Cube
:Dodecahedron
:Icosahedron
:Octahedron
:Tetrahedron
:Jorb

:[Caption below the comic:]
:Mathematicians long believed there were only five platonic solids, all regular polyhedra, until this year's discovery of the Jorb.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Geometry]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:LOTR]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:2990: Late Cenozoic

2024-10-01T12:08:39Z

172.68.205.165:

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

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

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

: Researchers have successfully detected and reconstructed the foundations of mud huts, and track down the fossilized trash heaps of humans and [https://www.usgs.gov/centers/geosciences-and-environmental-change-science-center/science/usgs-north-american-packrat animals]. Hard for me to imagine a circumstance in which the fossil exhibits of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Museum_of_Natural_History AMNH] (to name one) were preserved largely intact, that did not also preserve the AMNH itself in a recognizable form. The aliens might then be left to meditate on how a civilization that could create an AMNH [https://www.dude-n-dude.com/2021/05/02/amoebas-lorica-sanded/ fell over]. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.196|172.71.150.196]] 15:31, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

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

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

-Thinking emoji- pretty sure the typical museum dino skeleton is 100% fossil free. I might recall the dino (and similar rareness of fossils) skeletons on display as cast plaster (of paris?). SDT [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.17|172.70.38.17]] 03:04, 26 September 2024 (UTC)
: As usual, the answer to the question "how much of a displayed dinosaur skeleton is composed of authentic fossil bones" is "it depends". See [https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/which-dinosaur-bones-are-real this article] from Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History for intel. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.146|172.71.147.146]] 05:30, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

I would be willing to suffer the fate of {{w|Tithonus}} for a chance to see those aliens try to figure out the Cenozoic biogeography of Hawai‘i - where, for instance, the (presumably fossilized remains of the) backyard birds would include, inter alia, the northern cardinal (North America), the Java finch (Indonesia), the saffron finch (Brazil), the English sparrow (western Europe), the zebra dove (Malaysia), the warbling white-eye (Japan), the common waxbill (South Africa), the common myna (India) ... [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.151|172.68.23.151]] 05:58, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

I love the fact that we have a perfectly reasonable five sentence, three paragraph explanation with 5x as much text here on the talk page, especially after the disaster with Monday's (the previous) comic. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.24|162.158.90.24]] 07:22, 26 September 2024 (UTC)
:Haven't counted the sentences, but it's now four paragraphs. That's with a single (rendering-ignored) line-feed having been made into two (forcing a paragraph-break), when maybe someone should have contracted it instead.
:I just extracted a rather spaghetti-like inclusion of the nature(s?) of the future-beings from the flow, to streamline it. Readded that (further expounded, now with a bit of excusable elbow-room) as Trivia, to retain the speculative nature of that interesting but incidental bit of analysis. Hope this works for people. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.37|172.71.26.37]] 10:36, 26 September 2024 (UTC)
:Must have been nice while it lasted. "Dinosaurs, particularly velociraptors, eating humans is a recurring fear of Randall's." Good grief. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.207.42|172.70.207.42]] 17:23, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

Should we make a category for comics including these alien guys? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.155.35|172.71.155.35]] 16:59, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

This has an amusing (to me) parallel with the Young Earth Creationist "theory" that a malevolent power arranged fossils in the geologic record in such a way as to lead scientists to conclude that life has been here for hundreds of millions of years, thereby leading them away from God. In this case, our paleontologists and museum curators are that malevolent power. (There's also a "theory" that the Great Flood resulted in sorting the fossil record in that way, not malevolently, but as a function of density and hydrodynamics....)[[Special:Contributions/162.158.62.245|162.158.62.245]] 18:44, 26 September 2024 (UTC)
: Deus Creatus does lots of strange things. Kinda like the beings that created it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.5|108.162.246.5]] 19:19, 26 September 2024 (UTC)
: My theory: ''If'' there's a Creator, then He values logic. He may have created Earth as per YEC's thoughts on 6,000 years or so ago (or last Tuesday, or even five minutes ago!) but He was also the one who planted all the fossils (and light 'arriving' from the early universe, and perhaps all the scientific literature and other details that predates you having been blinked into existence, all your faked memories fully formed).
: This is His test. If you decide that the world was Created, based only upon one or other imperfect religious text (that He also created, with all their deliberate flaws and contradictions), then you have failed. If you instead examine the perfectly crafted scientific evidence (with its perfectly intentional limitations left open to further critical thinking) and decide that it is a much more useful worldview, and seek to find out more from the (faked, but perfectly so) world of wonder out there, then you are blessed.
: Though actually believing in this God Of Logic is not what He wants. Feel free to theorise about him, but you can never find any proof of Him because He never left any. All those false trails to various other deities, to catch the insufficiently thoughtful out, but the 'true' mysteries of the universe are the only ones you should pay attention to. And, through His omnipotence, He has left ''so many'' logical 'facts' and measurements for you to find and appreciate.
: ...this explains all observable data, but of course is unproven. Naturally, I don't say that it's true. I would instead preach that you ''look around and make your own mind up''. Which is something that more people could try doing. And there's no reason why GOL would not want you to do this. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.206|172.70.86.206]] 20:30, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

The biggest problem with this edition is that it names genera but speaks of species.
Re earlier comments, please spell "pristine" correctly. There has actually been found altered soft tissue, but not DNA as such.
Indeed some museum displays are 100% casts, others vary in the amount of original material. My first thought re human DNA was just from visitors coughing, sneezing, and touching but resin prep seems plausible. {{unsigned|Anthonyeleven|21:19, 26 September 2024}}

I'm no expert, but firstly, I would think the fossils keep aging even once unearthed, so that analysis would reveal their actual age, not placing them at modern day (despite what burial depth they were found) and would be more upright than the originals. Secondly, don't museums use things to hold the skeletons in place? Like metal frames? Wouldn't those be present and evident as well, revealing that these skeletons were being held together artificially? Thirdly, with Hallowe'en NEXT month I would think a comic about dinosaur skeletons would have been better NEXT week or later, :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 06:55, 28 September 2024 (UTC)
:Those bits of 'fossil' that are not (modern) plaster/resin/etc would tend to be rock (exact details variable, as endocasting, ichnofossilisation and permineralisation are just three ways among many of generating a recognisable fossil from remains). You'd have to do isotope self-replacement analysis to establish the differential between the presumed 'native' strata and the material of the 'bone's. Complicated by the post-WW2 isotope 'blips' (and, if applicable, post-WW3+ and/or cosmic-sourced irradiations from within or beyond humanity's further future).
:Uprightness would depend upon how the museum (itself perhaps significantly made of stone formed prior to the holocene, which might or might not be correctly established) maybe collapsed upon its exhibits. Which <blob-and-tentacle>kind's paleoarchitects may or may not be able to disentangle. Ditto (or, rather, ''correctly'' leave entangled) the wires, brackets and supporting props of all kinds, possibly distinguishable from the roof-work/light fittings superimposed upon the dinosaur skeleton.
:In various ways, I'm assuming far enough in the future to make thesevkinds of clues less trivially obvious, at least to the level of paleological understanding these blobs seem to have. In others (the detection of actual H. Sapiens DNA traces, but seemingly not so advanced to wonder about the comparative lack of DNA in the 'twice buried' skeletons), maybe not so far ahead. Unless their science is ''so'' good in some areas (rescue of trace DNA well beyond what we're currently capable of) but with relatively inexplicable gaps (reasonable analysis of the degradations it suffers through both time and circumstances) that N-years-ago vs. (N+65million+more)-years-ago is an apparently insignificant chronological departure.
:Or so I might suggest, for starters, if I were overanalytical about the comic. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.34|172.70.90.34]] 13:47, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

In the 1920s, archeologists dug up the 2500 year old museum of Ennigaldi-Nanna (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennigaldi-Nanna%27s_museum). Apparently this was actually very confusing, until they noticed the labels. {{unsigned ip|172.69.214.109|13:27, 30 September 2024}}
:...a hint to that editor (above and beyond the one to sign), and others. Use the {{template|w}}-template for wikilinks. Actual active examples abound, as it's probably one of the more commonly used templates in explainxkcd pages, but you could have used <code><nowiki>{{w|Ennigaldi-Nanna's museum}}</nowiki></code> to give: {{w|Ennigaldi-Nanna's museum}} ... [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.119|162.158.74.119]] 21:16, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

Why is the explanation SO LONG and BARELY RELEVANT?!? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.229|162.158.41.229]]
:Depends which bits you think aren't relevant. Someone thinks it's relevant that fossils ''can'' be found beyond their original era. Something thinks it's relevant that humans ''are'' probably imminently extinct. Someone thinks it's relevent to actually explain how stratological timelines are established in the first place. You could always remove something that you think isn't supposed to be there (but, equally, it's likely that someone else thought that it should be, and others may agree, disagree or not mind either way).
:Sentiment appreciated, but it's like "there's too many instances of a certain letter", without even hinting which one it is you dislike. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.165|172.68.205.165]] 12:08, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2992: UK Coal

2024-09-30T22:01:46Z

172.68.205.165:

nuclear power is better in all aspects anyway [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.105|172.70.90.105]] 19:40, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

Here before the explanation :) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.9|172.71.154.9]] 20:12, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

I made an initial explanation, but it needs a lot of work still; hopefully someone with more experience editing on this wiki can improve it (this is my first explanation) [[User:MathEnthusiast|MathEnthusiast]] ([[User talk:MathEnthusiast|talk]]) 20:27, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

: the sole rabbit-run coal plant was shut down in the 1990s. [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 20:43, 30 September 2024 (UTC)
Just checking, but this isn't referencing some particularly egregious, badly managed coal power plant in the U.K., is it? [[User:Fephisto|Fephisto]] ([[User talk:Fephisto|talk]]) 20:43, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

:I don’t think so; I believe it’s simply that Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant is the last UK coal plant to be shut down.

Randal uses SI units in the formula, as every person with the tiniest bit of tech/science education would, but then gives the result in inches (3.15) instead of centimeters (8.0). Americans are weird. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.110.162|162.158.110.162]] 20:56, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

:^^ This!

One should not forget that the 3 inches are very unevenly distributed. Some areas on top of coal mines have sunken in much further creating new flooding risks that require continued future interventions.
--[[Special:Contributions/172.64.236.34|172.64.236.34]] 21:08, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

I understand that Watership Down is sometimes categorized as "children's literature", but it always catches me off guard. The Wikipedia page for it calls it an "adventure novel" and it's in the adult fiction section at my library. I'm just wondering if perhaps the explanation here should be a little less specific in its categorization of the book.[[User:Dextrous Fred|Dextrous Fred]] ([[User talk:Dextrous Fred|talk]]) 21:35, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

From the perspective of someone who lived through the 1980s Miner's Strike (not directly affected, my father worked at a steel-works, not at a pit like my friends' fathers) and then the decline of the steel manufacturing industry (which ''did'' affect my father, obviously), I have rather naturally kept a general eye on the extraction and use of coal. There still are working coal-mines (though there isn't going to be that new one, in Cumbria), and there are still uses for UK coal (enough to import to add to tht which we dig out). It's really a bit early to say that the layer of total coal dug out ''won't'' deepen slightly (very, very slightly) in the future. And coal that is dug is only loosely associated with coal which is turned into electricity, so the last coal-generator stopping seems like an oddly off-topic detail for Randall to leap into the amortised accumulation of extracted volume. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.205.165|172.68.205.165]] 22:01, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

1017: Backward in Time

2024-09-12T21:49:23Z

172.68.205.165: /* Explanation */ Plural, not possessive.

{{comic
| number = 1017
| date = February 15, 2012
| title = Backward in Time
| image = backward_in_time.png
| titletext = People tell me I have too much time on my hands, but really the problem is that there's too much time, PERIOD.
}}

Clicking the image at xkcd.com links to [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ak43bGxHGI1adDMtOHVWVXZrYzhKd2VtbFJJMmJPTEE&single=true&gid=1&output=html this spreadsheet], which [[Randall]] used to calculate the times and dates for the comic. It also has a lot of other percentages and dates, so take a look if you are interested.

==Explanation==

[[Cueball]]/[[Randall]] creates this formula which helps him wait for long stretches of time which goes increasingly faster into the past as more time goes by, which gives him the effect of looking like the time goes by quickly. Which assists in the waiting process.

As far as the actual math is concerned, the formula is an {{w|exponential function}} (i.e. the variable appears in the exponent). The effect that the function grows faster and faster as p grows, is due to T(p) being exponential. More precisely, when you repeatedly add some constant to the exponent, you will repeatedly multiply some (other) constant with the value of the function. Compare how "slow" a value grows by adding even high values (1, 1001, 2001, 3001, 4001, 5001…) and how fast it grows by multiplying even low values (1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000…)

Now, the function has to be adjusted so that, as Randall put it, "the time spent in each part of the past is loosely proportional to how well I know it." The most important adjustment is putting p to the power of three. That lowers the amount added to the exponent for low values (0.1³=0.001, 0.2³=0.008, i.e. only 7/1000 have been added for 10% workflow) and increases the amount for high values (0.8³=0.512, 0.9³=0.729, i.e. more than 1/5 has been added for 10% workflow). That means the recent past will pass even slower and the historic past even faster than it already does by choosing an exponential function.
The remaining adjustments are technical. The coefficient in front of p³ adjusts the constant by which the result will be multiplied while adding some constant to p, while it also roughly ensures that p=1 yields the lifetime of the universe. The 3 added to the product in the exponent further adjusts the actual values of the power without touching the slope (the multiplicative constant). In the parentheses, e³ is subtracted to put the time to 0 when p=0. Otherwise the function would start approx. 20 yrs and 1 month ago. For bigger p, this offset does not matter much. Imagine subtracting 20 yrs from the lifetime of the universe!

Finally, the result is subtracted from the current date for aesthetical reasons. The formula could tell you "20 years ago", or it could read "February 1992". Randall decided the latter would be better.

There is actually a mathematical error in this comic; the inverse function in grey writing off at the bottom right of the main formula involves a square root, when the actual inverse of Randall's main function would involve a cube root. In addition, this function does not contain the current date, meaning that T, in the inverse, refers to how long ago a point in time was, rather than the point in time itself. When the T in the inverse is 20, it means that the date referenced by T is 20 years ago.

The punchline "Swoosh!" is about how fast the last few percents of Cueball's download happen in "such a rush". For most humans waiting for a download to complete tends to become really boring and progress would instead seem to get slower and slower.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Percent || Amount of Time Ago || Around This Time: || Explanation of Time Period
|-
| 0% || Now (As of the comics writing this would have been Feburary 15 2012) || N/A || It is {{w|Singles Awareness Day}}.
|-
| 7.308% || December 18 2011 || Kim Jong-il Dies, US Leaves Iraq|| ...
|-
| 10% || Sep. 2011 || N/A || This would be around the date of the tenth aniversary of the {{w|9/11 Attacks}}. Randall also got married around this time.
|-
| 20% || 2008 || N/A || The {{w|Marvel Cinematic Universe|Marvel}} movie {{w|Iron Man}} is released. {{w| Barack Obama}} wins the election and becomes the 44th President of the United States.
|-
| 30% || 1997 || N/A || {{w|O.J. Simpson|OJ Simpson}} was found liable for the deaths of {{W|Nicole Brown}} and {{w|Ronald Goldman}}. OJ owed the two families $35.5 million. Princess Diana died.
|-
| 31.12% || February 1995 || Windows 95 Debuts, OJ Found Not Guilty|| The {{w|Murder trial of O. J. Simpson|OJ Simson trial}} was a famous trial where OJ was tried for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. DNA evidence almost proved his guilt, however the defense pointed out the evidence wasn't collected correctly and could have been cross contaminated. Because of this, the jury found OJ not guilty of the double murder.
|-
| 40% || 1958 || N/A || In 1958 the European Common Market is created, Khruschev gains control of the USSR and the first American satellite, Explorer 1, is launched into orbit.
|-
| 47.91% || 1844 || Rubber Vulcanized, Bicycle Invented, Wrench Patented || {{w|Vulcanization}} is when one heats and addes sulfur to rubber, usually {{w|Polyisoprene|polyisoprene}} (natural rubber) or {{w|Styrene-butadiene|SBR rubber}}. This helps its elactisity and improves its strength. Charles Goodyear was the inventor of vulcanization. In the early 1800s tires quickly turned soft and sticky after they got hot (somthing that happens when you drive of them for miles at a time in 90 degree weather). Charles Goodyear heated up the rubber to add chemicals to the tires and to his amazment it worked!! The tires strength improved. The only problem was that the improvement wasn't because of the chemicals but because of the heating. He would eventally learn this after dropping the rubber in a frying pan, watching the rubber not melt as one would expect, but harden. Soon after, in 1844, he patented the process.
|-
| 50% || 1776 || N/A || On July 4th, the American colonies {{w|Lee Resolution|declared independence}} from Great Britain. This event started a {{w|American Revolutionary War|7 year war}}, in which, the colonies won their indepence. This heralds the start of The United States of America.
|-
| 60% || 405 AD || N/A || The {{w|War of Radagaisus}} started. Radagaisus lead a group of about 100,000 men across the Alps into Rome. The three remaining {{w|Sibylline Books}} were burned. The Sibylline books were a series of nine prophesies written by an old woman (it has never been found out who, but most likely a {{w|Cumaean Sibyl}}. It is said that they were offered to the last Emperor of Rome, {{w|Lucius Tarquinius Superbus}}, who refused to buy them twice, which resulted in three books getting burned for each denial. She then offered them back to the emperor for the same price and, at last, the Emperor bought them. The Roman Senate took control of the books and was extremely protective of them. The books were initially put under the care of two guardians, increasing to ten, then to fifteen. However, after eight centuries, a Roman General called {{w|Stilicho}} ordered them to be burned as they were being used to attack the government.
|-
| 70% || 22,000 Years Ago || N/A || ...
|-
| 70.33 || 24,Years Ago || Caves Painted, Ceramic Art Made. Neanderthals Extict || ...
|-
| 80% || 671,000 Years Ago || N/A || ...
|-
| 90% || 55 Million Years Ago || N/A || ...
|-
| 90.42% || 68 Million Years Ago || First flowering plants. Chicxulub impact kills off most dinosaurs. || ...
|-
| 100% || 13.76 billion years ago || Universe begins. First stars ignite. || ...
|}
[[940|(Also, the workout website, Fitocracy has been mentioned previously in xkcd.)]]

Note that as of the time that this page was last cached, the comic was uploaded at {{#expr:100*(((ln(({{#time:U}}-1329195600)/31536000+e^3)-3)/20.3444)^.5)}}% progress.

==Transcript==
:When I have a boring task to get through — a three-hour lecture, a giant file download, or a long term point goal in fitocracy — I use this formula to convert the percentage completed (p) into a date:

:T=(Current Date) - (e^(20.3444*p^3+3) - e^3) years

:When the task is 0% done, it gives today's date, and as I make progress, I move further and further back in time

:(inverse given in lighter colors)
:Inverse: p = sqrt((ln(T+e^3)-3)/20.3444)

:[Line Graph explaining the correlation between completion percentages and temporal deltas.]
:0% = now (Date of comic is 2012-02-14T00:00-0500, approx. 1329195600 UNIX)
:10% = September 2011
:20% = 2008
:30% = 1997
:40% = 1958
:50% = 1776
:60% = 405 AD
:70% = 22,000 years ago
:80% = 671,000 years ago
:90% = 55 million years ago
:100% = 13.8 billion years ago

:It moves slowly through the first few years, then steadily accelerates. I tuned the formula so the time spent in each part of the past is loosely proportional to how well I know it. This means I hit familiar landmarks with each bit of progress, giving me a satisfying sense of movement.

:[The following are panels detailing completion percentages, correlated time periods, and notable events from this time period.]

:7.308% December 18, 2011
:Around this time:
:Kim Jong-Il dies. US leaves Iraq.

:31.12% February 1995
:Around this time:
:Windows 95 debuts. OJ found not guilty.

:47.91% 1844
:Around this time:
:Rubber vulcanized, bicycle invented, wrench patented.

:70.33% 24,000 years ago
:Around this time:
:Caves painted, ceramic art made. Neanderthals extinct.

:90.42% 68 million years ago
:Around this time:
:First flowering plants. Chicxulub impact kills off most dinosaurs.

:100% 13.76 billion years ago
:Around this time:
:Universe begins. First stars ignite.

:Download complete.

:[Cueball watches a download progress on a laptop in amazement and happiness. Megan stands nearby and looks at Cueball with a bemused posture.]
:Cueball: Swoosh! Watching all that time blur past is such a rush!
:Megan: So...you've tried to make an extreme sport out of...''waiting''.
:Cueball: ''Swoosh!''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Timelines]]
[[Category:Math]]

1738: Moon Shapes

2024-08-19T08:57:46Z

172.68.205.165: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 1738
| date = September 26, 2016
| title = Moon Shapes
| image = moon_shapes.png
| titletext = Whenever I see a picture of the moon where the points go more than halfway around, I assume it's being eclipsed by one of those Independence Day ships and interpret the rest of the image in light of that.
}}

==Explanation==
The Earth's {{w|Moon}}, being the most prominent object in the night sky (most of the time), is a frequent subject of art; particularly art depicting a nighttime scene. Unfortunately, the moon often appears in works of art in ways that are very dramatic and would not be realistically possible. It may be done out of ignorance, or knowingly by taking {{w|artistic license}}. As someone interested in and who has worked in astronomy, this likely bothers [[Randall]].

The Moon is well known to have "{{w|lunar phase|phases}}" describing what portion of the visible surface of the moon is illuminated by sunlight and highly visible, and what portion is dark, and generally only slightly visible when the moon appears while the sun is also up. These phases progress between "New" (when the surface facing the Earth is completely dark) and "Full" (when the surface facing the Earth is completely illuminated, appearing as a full disk as viewed from Earth). Mid-way between those extreme phases is a "Quarter" Moon, when exactly one-half of the surface facing Earth is completely dark - at this point the Moon is a quarter of the way in its cycle from the New Moon, either one quarter of the way into it ("First" Quarter) or a quarter of the way from completing it ("Last" Quarter).

Because the Moon is approximately spherical, its illuminated side appears as "crescent" in shape as it progresses from New to First Quarter phase. As it progresses from First Quarter to Full phase, observers on Earth see a Waxing "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gibbous Gibbous] Moon (which just means that the dark portion has formed a crescent). One can imagine this like a globe on which you draw a straight line from the north pole to the south pole down the center of the side facing you (appearing to create two semi-circles); upon rotating the globe, the line would become rounded as it moved away creating a crescent on the side the line was moved towards. Because of the geometry involved, a line connecting the two points (horns) of a Crescent Moon (or of the darkened crescent inverse of a Gibbous Moon) must be a diameter of the moon (i.e. it must pass through the center of the circle).

The deliberate misidentification of a Waxing Gibbous Moon ("waxing" means going from new to full; that is increasing in illuminated area) as a "wax gibbon" (a Southeast Asian ape made of a nonpolar solid) is a source of humor in this comic. This is probably a reference to H.P. Lovecraft, who had several of his stories take place under "a gibbous moon" for dramatic effect, or even more likely a reference to the {{w|Discworld}} by {{w|Terry Pratchett}}, often referenced in xkcd (as in [[1498: Terry Pratchett]]). In the witch series the Gibbous Moon is mentioned several times as the most magic, rather than the more often used Crescent or Full Moon.

Further, because the light portion of the Moon is illuminated by sunlight (whether or not the Moon is in the sky at the same time as the Sun), the light side of the Moon will always be facing towards the Sun. If the Moon is in the night sky, the Sun must be somewhere "below" the horizon on the other side of the Earth. Thus, at night, the light portion of the Moon must always be on the half of the Moon that faces the horizon (there are points during the daytime when the orientation can go the other way); however, because of the [https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~amyers/MoonPaper20June.pdf moon tilt illusion] it is possible for the light portion of the moon to appear to point up. The [https://www.academia.edu/7848972/THE_MOON_TILT_ILLUSION moon tilt illusion] is generally not as severe and may only last a few hours after sunset.

It is worth noting that while the Moon's dark portion blends imperceptibly with the dark night sky, it is still a solid body. Therefore, it would be impossible to see more distant objects such as stars "through" the dark portion of the Moon's circumference. This is most dramatically exemplified by a {{w|solar eclipse}} during which the Moon passes in front of the Sun and is therefore completely dark (the Sun is lighting only the far side), but the Moon's circumference still blocks a circular portion of the Sun's light. Therefore, if we were to see any lights in the part of the sky the dark side of the Moon blocks, they would need to be from sources between us and the Moon's surface, such as a nuclear war on the moon.

This comic lists some of some common mistakes. In some cases, a depiction may be unrealistic in multiple ways - for example, the {{w|Flag of Tunisia}} has both unrealistic horns and a star visible between the horns, while {{w|File:Moon tarot charles6.jpg|the Charles VI tarot}} shows a Moon with over-long horns pointing towards the horizon.

In the title text, Randall is referring to the movie {{w|Independence Day (1996 film)|''Independence Day''}} and how one of the alien's ships (in the movie) 'eclipses' part of the Moon. He says that if the points go halfway or longer around the Moon, then he imagines it's caused by an alien ship and interprets the entire piece of art in that context (i.e. aliens are about to attack those shepherds!).

==Table of the images==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Explanation of individual items in the list
!#
!Image
!Shape
!Rating
!Text
!Explanation
!Examples
|-
|1 || [[File:moon1.jpg]]|| Full moon || Normal || rowspan="3" | "Full" or "Quarter" or "Harvest" or "Wax Gibbon" or whatever || Reality. The full moon cannot really be drawn incorrectly, and will look like this whenever it is up at night.
|-
|2 ||[[File:moon2.jpg]]|| Gibbous moon || Normal || Reality, as in this is how one of the moon's phases looks on a normal basis.
|-
|3 ||[[File:moon4a.jpg]]|| Crescent moon with horns away from horizon || Normal || Reality, as in this is how one of the moon's phases looks on a normal basis. || LOOK AT THE MOON
|-
|4 ||[[File:moon3.jpg]]|| Crescent moon with horns towards horizon || Not normal || Not possible at night || This can only happen when the sun is above the horizon. Since a crescent moon means that the Sun and the Moon are relatively close in the sky, the Moon would not be visible with a naked eye, its light completely outshone by the sunlight. Randall comments that this is possible only during the daytime, marking it wrong as the background would not be black. According to this [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase#/media/File:Moon_phases_en.jpg image] on Wikipedia's article on {{w|lunar phase}} "Phases of the Moon, as seen looking southward from the {{w|northern hemisphere}}. The {{w|southern hemisphere}} will see each phase rotated through 180°". This might seem to indicate that shape #3, which is visible in for instance USA where Randall lives should be seen like #4 in the southern part of South America, also at night! However, because the light portion of the moon is illuminated by sunlight (whether or not the moon is in the sky at the same time as the sun), the light side of the moon will always be facing towards the sun. If the moon is in the night sky, the sun must be somewhere "below" the horizon on the other side of the Earth. Thus, at night, the light portion of the moon must always be on the half of the moon that faces the horizon; However, in the case of twilight after sunset and shortly after (like the example painting), due to the [https://www.academia.edu/7848972/THE_MOON_TILT_ILLUSION moon tilt][https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~amyers/MoonPaper20June.pdf illusion] the bright side of the moon may appear to point up relative to an observer on the ground (although not to the extent show in the comic). But as the text from Randall points out there can be times during daytime when the orientation can go the other way. But then the background should not be black. Originally Randall wrote a different (wrong) sentence here and then corrected to the one currently explained, see [[#Trivia|trivia]] below.|| Van Gogh, {{w|File:Van Gogh - Passeio ao Crepúsculo.jpg|Landscape with Couple Walking and Crescent Moon}}
|-
|5 ||[[File:moon5a.jpg]]|| Wide crescent-like moon where the horns don't connect through a diameter || Not normal|| rowspan="2" | Only possible during a lunar eclipse (#1 only, dubious) or a solar eclipse (bright part is the Sun) || This is only possible during a partial solar eclipse or the start of an annular eclipse (in which cases the lit portion is not the moon, but the sun), or else if the Earth is casting its partial shadow on the Moon, a penumbral lunar eclipse. Randall labels the lunar eclipse "dubious", since the shadow during penumbral eclipse would be much lighter than shown here, in fact barely visible as a slight darkening of the Moon's surface. The Earth's shadow, being very large, would also likely cast a less-rounded edge than depicted here. ||
|-
|6 ||[[File:moon6.jpg]]|| Narrow crescent-like moon where the points don't connect through a diameter || Not normal || This situation is even harder to create than the previous one - unlike the previous example, here the diameter of the entire shadow is clear, and is too small for the Earth's shadow in a lunar eclipse. A huge ''Independence Day'' spaceship (as per the Title text) might be the right size. It does however resemble a partial {{w|annular eclipse}} if you imagine that the black area is the moon covering up the white sun. || {{w|File:AlcoholicBluesCoverVonTilze.jpg|Alcoholic Blues}}. Van Gogh, {{w|File:Van Gogh - Starry Night - Google Art Project.jpg|Starry Night}} but turned the other way.
|-
|7 ||[[File:moon7.jpg]]|| Crescent moon blocking stars|| Normal || Looks OK || Reality (as in image 3) with stars shown around the moon, but not any inside the sphere of the sky that would be blocked by the dark (but still present) side of the moon. (See [[#Trivia|trivia]] below though). ||
|-
|8 ||[[File:moon8.jpg]]|| Crescent moon with stars between horns || Not normal || There's either a hole in the Moon or a nuclear war on its surface || Many people (including artists) seem to forget that the dark portion of the moon is still a solid object that we cannot see through.[https://imgur.com/S30fuOj][https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/a7/7d/4a/a77d4ae9e3549e36edd350246d33700c.jpg] If stars are visible, there are either one or more holes in the moon, or the light-source is actually on the moon, such as nuclear explosions. As the {{w|Star and Crescent}}, the image is sometimes considered a symbol of Islam, although it's relatively recent and there's no traditional basis for putting the star ''between'' the horns - as originally used on the Flag of Turkey, the star appears in a realistic position. The flags of Algeria, Tunisia and some other countries show the star in the dark part of the moon. In the first Edwin Blashfield, {{w|File:Edwin Blashfield - Spring Scattering Stars.jpg|Spring Scattering Stars}} a God is standing on the moon throwing stars down, but then these stars are actually in front of the moon and are good. Nothing in the image suggest that stars can be seen through the dark part of the moon. Also, the {{w|DreamWorks Animation}} logo shows no stars. Although both show persons sitting on the seal, this is thus also clearly not an effort to make it look real. But in neither case stars can be seen in the moon. This is also the case for the live [https://youtu.be/xPpy8mYHQps?t=11 DreamWorks logo from movies]. Here there are stars in the background, but they are not inside the moon as [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f5/1738_Moon_Shapes_DreamWorks_logo_With_Moon_Circle.PNG can be seen here]. || An example can be found in the [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/26/1738_Moon_Shapes_Mole_Car_Moon_With_Stars_Inside.png image on the last page] of [https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-mole-got-his-car/dp/B0000CKRB4 How mole got his car] with the {{w|Mole (Zdeněk Miler character)|Mole}} from the carton series by {{w|Zdeněk Miler}}. This is not just showing the stars inside from the last shape, but also the type of moon shown in the sixth image.
|}

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the panel:]
:'''Interpreting the shape of the moon in art'''
:[The left part of the panel shows a two-column chart is shown with labels above the columns. The left side shows the moons shape as white on a black square. These types of moons could be seen in certain art pieces. The right side saying whether this is normal or not as indicated with a green check mark or a red X. Right of the second column there are explanations of why the specific type of moon is marked as it is and what it could be called or how it could be possible even with the red X. The upper three moons have one common explanation as indicated with a bracket that covers all three with the text on the middle part of the bracket. Similarly moon five and six also have a bracket and only one explanation.]
:Shape Normal?

:[Shape #1-3 shows a white circle (full moon), a more than half full moon (Gibbon) and a thin seal at the bottom right of the square.]
:<big>✓</big>
:<big>✓</big> "Full" or "Quarter" or "Harvest" or "Wax Gibbon" or whatever
:<big>✓</big>

:[Shape #4 same as #3 but with the seal in the upper part of the square.]
:<big>X</big> Not possible at night

:[Shape #5-6 shows a full moon with a circular section taken out of the right side and a seal that goes almost all the way around the circumference of the moon with almost a full circle taken out of the top left part of the moon.]
:<big>X</big>
:<big>X</big> Only possible during a lunar eclipse (#1 only, dubious) or a solar eclipse (bright part is the Sun)

:[Shape #7 same as #3 but with the seal a little smaller and more to the top and less to the left. Around the moon there are several starts represented with 29 small white dots. In the center of the black square there is a black circle, coinciding with the outer rim of the seal. Within this circle (the dark side of the moon) there are no stars!]
:<big>✓</big> Looks OK

:[Shape #8 same as #7 but apart from the 29 small white dots from before there are now also 6 more dots inside the dark circle with no stars in #7.]
:<big>X</big> There's either a hole in the Moon or a nuclear war on its surface.

==Trivia==
* [[Randall]] changed the text for the fourth moon shape the next day from "Only possible during a solar eclipse" to "Not possible at night".
** The original can be found [https://web.archive.org/web/20160926101411/http://xkcd.com/1738/ here]. The news section now reads "Thank you to Phil Plait for the correction on #4!"

* [[File:moon7a.jpg]] The image of the crescent moon blocking the stars is slightly wrong because there are still lights on the surface of the moon.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Fiction]] 
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Nuclear weapons]]
[[Category:Solar eclipses]]

List of all comics (3000-3500)

2024-08-15T19:28:38Z

172.68.205.165: Whatever the reason for all that changing, it doesn't seem to have helped anything... Hopefully mistake, not vandalism...

{{List of comics}}

This is a list of comics from 2501 to {{LATESTCOMIC}}.

{| class="wikitable sortable plainlinks table-padding"
|-
!Number
!Title
!Talk
!Image
!Date<onlyinclude>
{{comicsrow|2972|2024-08-14|Helium Synthesis|helium synthesis 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2971|2024-08-12|Celestial Event|celestial event 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2970|2024-08-09|Meteor Shower PSA|meteor shower psa 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2969|2024-08-07|Vice President First Names|vice president first names 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2968|2024-08-05|University Age|university age 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2967|2024-08-02|Matter|matter 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2966|2024-07-31|Exam Numbers|exam numbers 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2965|2024-07-29|Chili Tornado Quake|chili tornado quake 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2964|2024-07-26|Olympic Sports|olympic sports 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2963|2024-07-24|House Inputs and Outputs|house inputs and outputs 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2962|2024-07-22|President Venn Diagram|president venn diagram 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2961|2024-07-19|CrowdStrike|crowdstrike 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2960|2024-07-17|Organ Meanings|organ meanings 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2959|2024-07-15|Beam of Light|beam of light 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2958|2024-07-12|Hatchery|hatchery 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2957|2024-07-10|A Crossword Puzzle|a crossword puzzle 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2956|2024-07-08|Number Line Branch|number line branch 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2955|2024-07-05|Pole Vault|pole vault 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2954|2024-07-03|Bracket Symbols|bracket symbols 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2953|2024-07-01|Alien Theories|alien theories 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2952|2024-06-28|Routine Maintenance|routine maintenance 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2951|2024-06-26|Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas|bad map projection exterior kansas 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2950|2024-06-24|Situation|situation 2x.png}}
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{{comicsrow|2948|2024-06-19|Electric vs Gas|electric vs gas 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2947|2024-06-17|Pascal's Wager Triangle|pascals wager triangle 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2946|2024-06-14|1.2 Kilofives|1 2 kilofives 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2945|2024-06-12|Broken Model|broken model 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2944|2024-06-10|Magnet Fishing|magnet fishing 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2943|2024-06-07|Unsolved Chemistry Problems|unsolved chemistry problems 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2942|2024-06-05|Fluid Speech|fluid speech 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2941|2024-06-03|Cell Organelles|cell organelles 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2940|2024-05-31|Modes of Transportation|modes of transportation 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2939|2024-05-29|Complexity Analysis|complexity analysis 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2938|2024-05-27|Local Group|local group 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2937|2024-05-24|Room Code|room code 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2936|2024-05-22|Exponential Growth|exponential growth 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2935|2024-05-20|Ocean Loop|ocean loop 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2934|2024-05-17|Bloom Filter|bloom filter 2x.png}}
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{{comicsrow|2932|2024-05-13|Driving PSA|driving psa 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2931|2024-05-10|Chasing|chasing 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2930|2024-05-08|Google Solar Cycle|google solar cycle 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2929|2024-05-06|Good and Bad Ideas|good and bad ideas 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2928|2024-05-03|Software Testing Day|software testing day 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2927|2024-05-01|Alphabetical Cartogram|alphabetical cartogram 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2926|2024-04-29|Doppler Effect|doppler effect 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2925|2024-04-26|Earth Formation Site|earth formation site 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2924|2024-04-24|Pendulum Types|pendulum types 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2923|2024-04-22|Scary Triangles|scary triangles 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2922|2024-04-19|Pub Trivia|pub trivia 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2921|2024-04-17|Eclipse Path Maps|eclipse path maps 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2920|2024-04-15|Survey Marker|survey marker 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2919|2024-04-12|Sitting in a Tree|sitting in a tree 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2918|2024-04-11|Tick Marks|tick marks 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2917|2024-04-08|Types of Eclipse Photo|types of eclipse photo 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2916|2024-04-05|Machine|machine 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2915|2024-04-03|Eclipse Clouds|eclipse clouds 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2914|2024-04-01|Eclipse Coolness|eclipse coolness 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2913|2024-03-29|Periodic Table Regions|periodic table regions 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2912|2024-03-27|Cursive Letters|cursive letters 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2911|2024-03-25|Greenland Size|greenland size 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2910|2024-03-22|The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald|the wreck of the edmund fitzgerald 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2909|2024-03-20|Moon Landing Mission Profiles|moon landing mission profiles 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2908|2024-03-18|Moon Armor Index|moon armor index 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2907|2024-03-15|Schwa|schwa 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2906|2024-03-13|Earth|earth 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2905|2024-03-11|Supergroup|supergroup 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2904|2024-03-08|Physics vs. Magic|physics vs magic 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2903|2024-03-06|Earth/Venus Venn Diagram|earth venus venn diagram 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2902|2024-03-04|Ice Core|ice core 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2901|2024-03-01|Geographic Qualifiers|geographic qualifiers 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2900|2024-02-28|Call My Cell|call my cell 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2899|2024-02-26|Goodhart's Law|goodharts law 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2898|2024-02-23|Orbital Argument|orbital argument 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2897|2024-02-21|Light Leap Years|light leap years 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2896|2024-02-19|Crossword Constructors|crossword constructors 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2895|2024-02-16|Treasure Chests|treasure chests 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2894|2024-02-14|Research Account|research account 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2893|2024-02-12|Sphere Tastiness|sphere tastiness 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2892|2024-02-09|Banana Prices|banana prices 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2891|2024-02-07|Log Cabin|log cabin 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2890|2024-02-05|Relationship Advice|relationship advice 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2889|2024-02-02|Greenhouse Effect|greenhouse effect 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2888|2024-01-31|US Survey Foot|us survey foot 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2887|2024-01-29|Minnesota|minnesota 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2886|2024-01-26|Fast Radio Bursts|fast radio bursts 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2885|2024-01-24|Spelling|spelling 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2884|2024-01-22|Log Alignment|log alignment 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2883|2024-01-19|Astronaut Guests|astronaut_guests.png}}
{{comicsrow|2882|2024-01-17|Net Rotations|net rotations 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2881|2024-01-15|Bug Thread|bug thread 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2880|2024-01-12|Sheet Bend|sheet bend 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2879|2024-01-10|Like This One|like this one 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2878|2024-01-08|Supernova|supernova 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2877|2024-01-05|Fever|fever 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2876|2024-01-03|Range Safety|range safety 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2875|2024-01-01|2024|2024 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2874|2023-12-29|Iceland|iceland 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2873|2023-12-27|Supersymmetry|supersymmetry 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2872|2023-12-25|Hydrothermal Vents|hydrothermal vents 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2871|2023-12-22|Definitely|definitely 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2870|2023-12-20|Love Songs|love songs 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2869|2023-12-18|Puzzles|puzzles 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2868|2023-12-15|Label the States|label the states 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2867|2023-12-13|DateTime|datetime 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2866|2023-12-11|Snow|snow 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2865|2023-12-08|the Wrong Stuff|the wrong stuff 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2864|2023-12-06|Compact Graphs|compact graphs 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2863|2023-12-04|Space Typography|space typography 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2862|2023-12-01|Typical Seating Chart|typical seating chart 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2861|2023-11-29|X Value|x value 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2860|2023-11-27|Decay Modes|decay modes 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2859|2023-11-24|Oceanography Gift|oceanography gift 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2858|2023-11-22|Thanksgiving Arguments|thanksgiving arguments 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2857|2023-11-20|Rebuttals|rebuttals 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2856|2023-11-17|Materials Scientists|materials scientists 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2854|2023-11-13|Date Line|date line 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2853|2023-11-10|Redshift|redshift 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2852|2023-11-08|Parameterball|parameterball 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2851|2023-11-06|Messier Objects|messier objects 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2850|2023-11-03|Doctor's Office|doctors office 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2849|2023-11-01|Under the Stars|under the stars 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2848|2023-10-30|Breaker Box|breaker box 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2847|2023-10-27|Dendrochronology|dendrochronology 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2846|2023-10-25|Daylight Saving Choice|daylight saving choice 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2845|2023-10-23|Extinction Mechanisms|extinction mechanisms 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2844|2023-10-20|Black Holes vs Regular Holes|black holes vs regular holes 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2843|2023-10-18|Professional Oaths|professional oaths.png}}
{{comicsrow|2842|2023-10-16|Inspiraling Roundabout|inspiraling roundabout.png}}
{{comicsrow|2841|2023-10-13|Sign Combo|sign combo 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2840|2023-10-11|Earth Layers|earth layers 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2839|2023-10-09|Language Acquisition|language acquisition 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2838|2023-10-06|Dubious Islands|dubious islands 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2837|2023-10-04|Odyssey|odyssey 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2836|2023-10-02|A Halloween Carol|a halloween carol 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2835|2023-09-29|Factorial Numbers|factorial numbers 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2834|2023-09-27|Book Podcasts|book podcasts 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2833|2023-09-25|Lying|lying 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2832|2023-09-22|Urban Planning Opinion Progression|urban planning opinion progression 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2831|2023-09-20|xkcd Phone Flip|xkcd phone flip 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2830|2023-09-18|Haunted House|haunted house 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2829|2023-09-15|Iceberg Efficiency|iceberg efficiency 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2828|2023-09-13|Exoplanet Observation|exoplanet observation 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2827|2023-09-11|Brassica|brassica 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2826|2023-09-08|Gold|gold 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2825|2023-09-06|Autumn and Fall|autumn and fall 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2824|2023-09-04|Abstract Pickup|abstract pickup 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2823|2023-09-01|Fossil|fossil 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2822|2023-08-30|*@gmail.com|gmail com 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2821|2023-08-28|Path Minimization|path minimization 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2820|2023-08-25|Inspiration|inspiration 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2819|2023-08-23|Pronunciation|pronunciation 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2818|2023-08-21|Circuit Symbols|circuit symbols 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2817|2023-08-18|Electron Holes|electron holes 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2816|2023-08-16|Types of Solar Eclipse|types of solar eclipse 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2815|2023-08-14|Car Wash|car wash 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2814|2023-08-11|Perseids Pronunciation|perseids pronunciation 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2813|2023-08-09|What To Do|what to do 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2812|2023-08-07|Solar Panel Placement|solar panel placement 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2811|2023-08-04|Free Fallin'|free fallin 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2810|2023-08-02|How to Coil a Cable|how to coil a cable 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2809|2023-07-31|Moon|moon 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2808|2023-07-28|Daytime Firefly|daytime firefly 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2807|2023-07-26|Bad Map Projection: ABS(Longitude)|bad map projection abs longitude 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2806|2023-07-24|Anti-Vaxxers|anti vaxxers 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2805|2023-07-21|Global Atmospheric Circulation|global atmospheric circulation 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2804|2023-07-19|Marshmallow|marshmallow 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2803|2023-07-17|Geohydrotypography|geohydrotypography 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2802|2023-07-14|Fireflies|fireflies 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2801|2023-07-12|Contact Merge|contact merge 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2800|2023-07-10|Down|down 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2799|2023-07-07|Frankenstein Claim Permutations|frankenstein claim permutations 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2798|2023-07-05|Room Temperature|room temperature 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2797|2023-07-03|Actual Progress|actual progress 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2796|2023-06-30|Real Estate Analysis|real estate analysis 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2795|2023-06-28|Glass-Topped Table|glass topped table.png}}
{{comicsrow|2794|2023-06-26|Alphabet Notes|alphabet notes.png}}
{{comicsrow|2793|2023-06-23|Garden Path Sentence|garden path sentence.png}}
{{comicsrow|2792|2023-06-21|Summer Solstice|summer solstice 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2791|2023-06-19|Bookshelf Sorting|bookshelf sorting 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2790|2023-06-16|Heat Pump|heat pump 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2789|2023-06-14|Making Plans|making plans 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2788|2023-06-12|Musical Scales|musical scales 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2787|2023-06-09|Iceberg|iceberg 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2786|2023-06-07|UFO Evidence|ufo evidence 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2785|2023-06-05|Marble Run|marble run 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2784|2023-06-02|Drainage Basins|drainage basins 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2783|2023-05-31|Ruling Out|ruling out 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2782|2023-05-29|Wikipedia Article Titles|wikipedia article titles 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2781|2023-05-26|The Six Platonic Solids|the six platonic solids 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2780|2023-05-24|Physical Quantities|physical quantities 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2779|2023-05-22|Exoplanet High-5|exoplanet high 5 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2778|2023-05-19|Cuisine|cuisine 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2777|2023-05-17|Noise Filter|noise filter 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2776|2023-05-15|Crystal Ball|crystal ball 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2775|2023-05-12|Siphon|siphon 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2774|2023-05-10|Taxiing|taxiing 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2773|2023-05-08|Planetary Scientist|planetary scientist 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2772|2023-05-05|Commemorative Plaque|commemorative plaque 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2771|2023-05-03|College Knowledge|college knowledge 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2770|2023-05-01|Tapetum Lucidum|tapetum lucidum 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2769|2023-04-28|Overlapping Circles|overlapping circles 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2768|2023-04-26|Definition of e|definition of e 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2767|2023-04-24|Recipe Relativity|recipe relativity 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2766|2023-04-21|Helium Reserve|helium reserve 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2765|2023-04-19|Escape Speed|escape speed 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2764|2023-04-17|Cosmological Nostalgia Content|cosmological nostalgia content 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2763|2023-04-14|Linguistics Gossip|linguistics gossip 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2762|2023-04-12|Diffraction Spikes|diffraction spikes 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2761|2023-04-10|1-to-1 Scale|1 to 1 scale 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2760|2023-04-07|Paleontology Museum|paleontology museum 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2759|2023-04-05|Easily Confused Acronyms|easily confused acronyms 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2758|2023-04-03|My Favorite Things|my favorite things 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2757|2023-03-31|Towed Message|towed message 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2756|2023-03-29|Qualifications|qualifications 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2755|2023-03-27|Effect Size|effect size 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2754|2023-03-24|Relative Terms|relative terms 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2753|2023-03-22|Air Handler|air handler 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2752|2023-03-20|Salt Dome|salt dome 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2751|2023-03-17|March Madness|march madness 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2750|2023-03-15|Flatten the Planets|flatten the planets 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2749|2023-03-13|Lymphocytes|lymphocytes 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2748|2023-03-10|Radians Are Cursed|radians are cursed 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2747|2023-03-08|Presents for Biologists|presents for biologists 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2746|2023-03-06|Launch Window|launch window 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2745|2023-03-03|Obituary Editor|obituary editor 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2744|2023-03-01|Fanservice|fanservice 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2743|2023-02-27|Hand Dryers|hand dryers 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2742|2023-02-24|Island Storage|island storage 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2741|2023-02-22|Wish Interpretation|wish interpretation 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2740|2023-02-20|Square Packing|square packing 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2739|2023-02-17|Data Quality|data quality 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2738|2023-02-15|Omniknot|omniknot 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2737|2023-02-13|Weather Station|weather station 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2736|2023-02-10|Only Serifs|only serifs 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2735|2023-02-08|Coordinate Plane Closure|coordinate plane closure 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2734|2023-02-06|Electron Color|electron color 2x.png}}
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{{comicsrow|2732|2023-02-01|Bursa of Fabricius|bursa of fabricius 2x.png}}
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{{comicsrow|2730|2023-01-27|Code Lifespan|code lifespan 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2729|2023-01-25|Planet Killer Comet Margarita|planet killer comet margarita 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2728|2023-01-23|Lane Change Highway|lane change highway 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2727|2023-01-20|Runtime|runtime 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2726|2023-01-18|Methodology Trial|methodology trial 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2725|2023-01-16|Sunspot Cycle|sunspot cycle 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2724|2023-01-13|Washing Machine Settings|washing machine settings 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2723|2023-01-11|Outdated Periodic Table|outdated periodic table 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2722|2023-01-09|Etymonline|etymonline 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2721|2023-01-06|Euler Diagrams|euler diagrams 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2720|2023-01-04|Biology vs Robotics|biology vs robotics 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2719|2023-01-02|Hydrogen Isotopes|hydrogen isotopes 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2718|2022-12-30|New Year's Eve 2023|new years eve 2023 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2717|2022-12-27|L6 Lagrange Point|l6 lagrange point 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2716|2022-12-26|Game Night Ordering|game night ordering 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2715|2022-12-23|Pando|pando 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2714|2022-12-21|Cold Complaints|cold complaints 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2713|2022-12-19|Data Point|data point 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2712|2022-12-16|Gravity|gravity 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2711|2022-12-14|Optimal Bowling|optimal bowling 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2710|2022-12-12|Hydropower Breakthrough|hydropower breakthrough 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2709|2022-12-09|Solar System Model|solar system model 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2708|2022-12-07|Mystery Asterisk Destination|mystery asterisk destination 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2707|2022-12-05|Astronomy Numbers|astronomy numbers 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2706|2022-12-02|Bendy|bendy 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2705|2022-11-30|Spacetime Soccer|spacetime soccer 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2704|2022-11-28|Faucet|faucet 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2703|2022-11-25|Paper Title|paper title 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2702|2022-11-23|What If 2 Gift Guide|what if 2 gift guide 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2701|2022-11-21|Change in Slope|change in slope 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2700|2022-11-18|Account Problems|account problems 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2699|2022-11-16|Feature Comparison|feature comparison 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2698|2022-11-14|Bad Date|bad date 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2697|2022-11-11|Y2K and 2038|y2k and 2038 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2696|2022-11-09|Precision vs Accuracy|precision vs accuracy 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2695|2022-11-07|Soil|soil 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2694|2022-11-04|Königsberg|konigsberg 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2693|2022-11-02|Wirecutter Recommendation|wirecutter recommendation 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2692|2022-10-31|Interior Decorating|interior decorating 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2691|2022-10-28|Encryption|encryption 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2690|2022-10-26|Cool S|cool s 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2689|2022-10-24|Fermat's First Theorem|fermats first theorem 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2688|2022-10-21|Bubble Universes|bubble universes 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2687|2022-10-19|Division Notation|division notation 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2686|2022-10-17|Space Adventure|space adventure 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2685|2022-10-14|2045|2045 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2684|2022-10-12|Road Space Comparison|road space comparison 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2683|2022-10-10|Fan Theories|fan theories 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2682|2022-10-07|Easy Or Hard|easy or hard 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2681|2022-10-05|Archimedes Principle|archimedes principle 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2680|2022-10-03|Battery Life|battery life 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2679|2022-09-30|Quantified Self|quantified self 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2678|2022-09-28|Wing Lift|wing lift 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2677|2022-09-26|Two Key System|two key system 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2676|2022-09-23|Historical Dates|historical dates 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2675|2022-09-21|Pilot Priority List|pilot priority list 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2674|2022-09-19|Everyday Carry|everyday carry 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2673|2022-09-16|Cursed mRNA Cocktail|cursed mrna cocktail 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2672|2022-09-13|What If? 2 Flowchart|what if 2 flowchart 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2671|2022-09-12|Rotation|rotation.png}}
{{comicsrow|2670|2022-09-09|Interruption|interruption.png}}
{{comicsrow|2669|2022-09-07|Things You Should Not Do|things you should not do.png}}
{{comicsrow|2668|2022-09-05|Artemis Quote|artemis quote.png}}
{{comicsrow|2667|2022-09-02|First Internet Interaction|first internet interaction.png}}
{{comicsrow|2666|2022-08-31|Universe Price Tiers|universe price tiers.png}}
{{comicsrow|2665|2022-08-29|America Songs|america songs.png}}
{{comicsrow|2664|2022-08-26|Cloud Swirls|cloud swirls.png}}
{{comicsrow|2663|2022-08-24|Tetherball Configurations|tetherball configurations.png}}
{{comicsrow|2662|2022-08-22|Physics Safety Tip|physics safety tip.png}}
{{comicsrow|2661|2022-08-19|Age Milestone Privileges|age milestone privileges.png}}
{{comicsrow|2660|2022-08-17|Gen Z|gen z.png}}
{{comicsrow|2659|2022-08-15|Unreliable Connection|unreliable connection.png}}
{{comicsrow|2658|2022-08-12|Coffee Cup Holes|coffee cup holes.png}}
{{comicsrow|2657|2022-08-10|Complex Vowels|complex vowels.png}}
{{comicsrow|2656|2022-08-08|Scientific Field Prefixes|scientific field prefixes.png}}
{{comicsrow|2655|2022-08-05|Asking Scientists Questions|asking scientists questions.png}}
{{comicsrow|2654|2022-08-03|Chemtrails|chemtrails.png}}
{{comicsrow|2653|2022-08-01|Omnitaur|omnitaur.png}}
{{comicsrow|2652|2022-07-29|Proxy Variable|proxy variable.png}}
{{comicsrow|2651|2022-07-27|Air Gap|air gap.png}}
{{comicsrow|2650|2022-07-25|Deepfakes|deepfakes.png}}
{{comicsrow|2649|2022-07-22|Physics Cost-Saving Tips|physics cost saving tips.png}}
{{comicsrow|2648|2022-07-20|Chemicals|chemicals.png}}
{{comicsrow|2647|2022-07-18|Capri Suns|capri suns.png}}
{{comicsrow|2646|2022-07-15|Minkowski Space|minkowski space.png}}
{{comicsrow|2644|2022-07-11|fMRI Billboard|fmri billboard.png}}
{{comicsrow|2643|2022-07-08|Cosmologist Gift|cosmologist gift.png}}
{{comicsrow|2642|2022-07-06|Meta-Alternating Current|meta alternating current.png}}
{{comicsrow|2641|2022-07-04|Mouse Turbines|mouse turbines.png}}
{{comicsrow|2640|2022-07-01|The Universe by Scientific Field|the universe by scientific field.png}}
{{comicsrow|2639|2022-06-29|Periodic Table Changes|periodic table changes.png}}
{{comicsrow|2638|2022-06-27|Extended NFPA Hazard Diamond|extended nfpa hazard diamond.png}}
{{comicsrow|2637|2022-06-24|Roman Numerals|roman numerals.png}}
{{comicsrow|2636|2022-06-22|What If? 2 Countdown|what if 2 countdown.png}}
{{comicsrow|2635|2022-06-20|Superintelligent AIs|superintelligent ais.png}}
{{comicsrow|2634|2022-06-17|Red Line Through HTTPS|red line through https.png}}
{{comicsrow|2633|2022-06-15|Astronomer Hotline|Astronomer Hotline.png}}
{{comicsrow|2632|2022-06-13|Greatest Scientist|Greatest Scientist.png}}
{{comicsrow|2631|2022-06-10|Exercise Progression|exercise progression.png}}
{{comicsrow|2630|2022-06-08|Shuttle Skeleton|shuttle skeleton.png}}
{{comicsrow|2629|2022-06-06|Or Whatever|or whatever.png}}
{{comicsrow|2628|2022-06-03|Motion Blur|motion blur.png}}
{{comicsrow|2627|2022-06-01|Types of Scopes|types of scopes.png}}
{{comicsrow|2626|2022-05-30|d65536|d65536.png}}
{{comicsrow|2625|2022-05-27|Field Topology|field topology.png}}
{{comicsrow|2624|2022-05-25|Voyager Wires|voyager wires.png}}
{{comicsrow|2623|2022-05-23|Goofs|goofs.png}}
{{comicsrow|2622|2022-05-20|Angular Diameter Turnaround|angular diameter turnaround.png}}
{{comicsrow|2621|2022-05-18|Mainly Known For|mainly known for.png}}
{{comicsrow|2620|2022-05-16|Health Data|health data.png}}
{{comicsrow|2619|2022-05-13|Crêpe|crepe.png}}
{{comicsrow|2618|2022-05-11|Selection Bias|selection bias.png}}
{{comicsrow|2617|2022-05-09|Maps|maps.png}}
{{comicsrow|2616|2022-05-06|Deep End|deep_end.png}}
{{comicsrow|2615|2022-05-04|Welcome Back|welcome_back.png}}
{{comicsrow|2614|2022-05-02|2|2.png}}
{{comicsrow|2613|2022-03-29|Bad Map Projection: Madagascator|bad map projection madagascator.png}}
{{comicsrow|2612|2022-04-27|Lightsabers|lightsabers.png}}
{{comicsrow|2611|2022-04-25|Cutest-Sounding Scientific Effects|cutest sounding scientific effects.png}}
{{comicsrow|2610|2022-04-22|Assigning Numbers|assigning numbers.png}}
{{comicsrow|2609|2022-04-20|Entwives|entwives.png}}
{{comicsrow|2608|2022-04-18|Family Reunion|family reunion.png}}
{{comicsrow|2607|2022-04-15|Geiger Counter|geiger counter.png}}
{{comicsrow|2606|2022-04-13|Weird Unicode Math Symbols|weird unicode math symbols.png}}
{{comicsrow|2605|2022-04-11|Taylor Series|taylor series.png}}
{{comicsrow|2604|2022-04-08|Frankenstein Captcha|frankenstein captcha.png}}
{{comicsrow|2603|2022-04-06|Childhood Toys|childhood toys.png}}
{{comicsrow|2602|2022-04-04|Linguistics Degree|linguistics degree.png}}
{{comicsrow|2601|2022-04-01|Instructions|instructions.png}}
{{comicsrow|2600|2022-03-30|Rejected Question Categories|rejected question categories.png}}
{{comicsrow|2599|2022-03-28|Spacecraft Debris Odds Ratio|spacecraft debris odds ratio.png}}
{{comicsrow|2598|2022-03-25|Graphic Designers|graphic designers.png}}
{{comicsrow|2597|2022-03-23|Salary Negotiation|salary negotiation.png}}
{{comicsrow|2596|2022-03-21|Galaxies|galaxies.png}}
{{comicsrow|2595|2022-03-18|Advanced Techniques|advanced techniques.png}}
{{comicsrow|2594|2022-03-16|Consensus Time|consensus time.png}}
{{comicsrow|2593|2022-03-14|Deviled Eggs|deviled eggs.png}}
{{comicsrow|2592|2022-03-11|False Dichotomy|false dichotomy.png}}
{{comicsrow|2591|2022-03-09|Qua|qua.png}}
{{comicsrow|2590|2022-03-07|I Shouldn't Complain|i shouldnt complain.png}}
{{comicsrow|2589|2022-03-04|Outlet Denier|outlet denier.png}}
{{comicsrow|2588|2022-03-02|Party Quadrants|party quadrants.png}}
{{comicsrow|2587|2022-02-28|For the Sake of Simplicity|for the sake of simplicity.png}}
{{comicsrow|2586|2022-02-25|Greek Letters|greek letters.png}}
{{comicsrow|2585|2022-02-23|Rounding|rounding.png}}
{{comicsrow|2584|2022-02-21|Headline Words|headline words.png}}
{{comicsrow|2583|2022-02-18|Chorded Keyboard|chorded keyboard.png}}
{{comicsrow|2582|2022-02-16|Data Trap|data trap.png}}
{{comicsrow|2581|2022-02-14|Health Stats|health stats.png}}
{{comicsrow|2580|2022-02-11|Rest and Fluids|rest and fluids.png}}
{{comicsrow|2579|2022-02-09|Tractor Beam|tractor beam.png}}
{{comicsrow|2578|2022-02-07|Sword Pull|sword pull.png}}
{{comicsrow|2577|2022-02-04|Sea Chase|sea chase.png}}
{{comicsrow|2576|2022-02-02|Control Group|control group.png}}
{{comicsrow|2575|2022-01-31|What If? 2|what if 2.png}}
{{comicsrow|2574|2022-01-28|Autoresponder|autoresponder.png}}
{{comicsrow|2573|2022-01-26|Alien Mission|alien mission.png}}
{{comicsrow|2572|2022-01-24|Alien Observers|alien observers.png}}
{{comicsrow|2571|2022-01-21|Hydraulic Analogy|hydraulic analogy.png}}
{{comicsrow|2570|2022-01-19|Captain Picard Tea Order|captain picard tea order.png}}
{{comicsrow|2569|2022-01-17|Hypothesis Generation|hypothesis generation.png}}
{{comicsrow|2568|2022-01-14|Spinthariscope|spinthariscope.png}}
{{comicsrow|2567|2022-01-12|Language Development|language development.png}}
{{comicsrow|2566|2022-01-10|Decorative Constants|decorative constants.png}}
{{comicsrow|2565|2022-01-07|Latency|latency.png}}
{{comicsrow|2564|2022-01-05|Sunshield|sunshield.png}}
{{comicsrow|2563|2022-01-03|Throat and Nasal Passages|throat and nasal passages.png}}
{{comicsrow|2562|2021-12-31|Formatting Meeting|formatting meeting.png}}
{{comicsrow|2561|2021-12-29|Moonfall|moonfall.png}}
{{comicsrow|2560|2021-12-27|Confounding Variables|confounding variables.png}}
{{comicsrow|2559|2021-12-24|December 25th Launch|december 25th launch.png}}
{{comicsrow|2558|2021-12-22|Rapid Test Results|rapid test results.png}}
{{comicsrow|2557|2021-12-20|Immunity|immunity.png}}
{{comicsrow|2556|2021-12-17|Turing Complete|turing complete.png}}
{{comicsrow|2555|2021-12-15|Notifications|notifications.png}}
{{comicsrow|2554|2021-12-13|Gift Exchange|gift exchange.png}}
{{comicsrow|2553|2021-12-10|Incident Report|incident report.png}}
{{comicsrow|2552|2021-12-08|The Last Molecule|the last molecule.png}}
{{comicsrow|2551|2021-12-06|Debunking|debunking.png}}
{{comicsrow|2550|2021-12-03|Webb|webb.png}}
{{comicsrow|2549|2021-12-01|Edge Cake|edge cake.png}}
{{comicsrow|2548|2021-11-29|Awful People|awful people.png}}
{{comicsrow|2547|2021-11-26|Siren|siren.png}}
{{comicsrow|2546|2021-11-24|Fiction vs Nonfiction|fiction vs nonfiction.png}}
{{comicsrow|2545|2021-11-22|Bayes' Theorem|bayes theorem.png}}
{{comicsrow|2544|2021-11-19|Heart-Stopping Texts|heart stopping texts.png}}
{{comicsrow|2543|2021-11-17|Never Told Anyone|never told anyone.png}}
{{comicsrow|2542|2021-11-15|Daylight Calendar|daylight calendar.png}}
{{comicsrow|2541|2021-11-12|Occam|occam.png}}
{{comicsrow|2540|2021-11-10|TTSLTSWBD|ttsltswbd.png}}
{{comicsrow|2539|2021-11-08|Flinch|flinch.png}}
{{comicsrow|2538|2021-11-05|Snack|snack.png}}
{{comicsrow|2537|2021-11-03|Painbow Award|painbow award.png}}
{{comicsrow|2536|2021-11-01|Wirecutter|wirecutter.png}}
{{comicsrow|2535|2021-10-29|Common Cold Viruses|common cold viruses.png}}
{{comicsrow|2534|2021-10-27|Retractable Rocket|retractable rocket.png}}
{{comicsrow|2533|2021-10-25|Slope Hypothesis Testing|slope hypothesis testing.png}}
{{comicsrow|2532|2021-10-22|Censored Vaccine Card|censored vaccine card.png}}
{{comicsrow|2531|2021-10-20|Dark Arts|dark arts.png}}
{{comicsrow|2530|2021-10-18|Clinical Trials|clinical trials.png}}
{{comicsrow|2529|2021-10-15|Unsolved Math Problems|unsolved math problems.png}}
{{comicsrow|2528|2021-10-13|Flag Map Sabotage|flag map sabotage.png}}
{{comicsrow|2527|2021-10-11|New Nobel Prizes|new nobel prizes.png}}
{{comicsrow|2526|2021-10-08|TSP vs TBSP|tsp vs tbsp.png}}
{{comicsrow|2525|2021-10-06|Air Travel Packing List|air travel packing list.png}}
{{comicsrow|2524|2021-10-04|Comet Visitor|comet visitor.png}}
{{comicsrow|2523|2021-10-01|Endangered|endangered.png}}
{{comicsrow|2522|2021-09-29|Two-Factor Security Key|two factor security key.png}}
{{comicsrow|2521|2021-09-27|Toothpaste|toothpaste.png}}
{{comicsrow|2520|2021-09-24|Symbols|symbols.png}}
{{comicsrow|2519|2021-09-22|Sloped Border|sloped border.png}}
{{comicsrow|2518|2021-09-20|Lumpers and Splitters|lumpers and splitters.png}}
{{comicsrow|2517|2021-09-17|Rover Replies|rover replies.png}}
{{comicsrow|2516|2021-09-15|Hubble Tension|hubble tension.png}}
{{comicsrow|2515|2021-09-13|Vaccine Research|vaccine research.png}}
{{comicsrow|2514|2021-09-10|Lab Equipment|lab equipment.png}}
{{comicsrow|2513|2021-09-08|Saturn Hexagon|saturn hexagon.png}}
{{comicsrow|2512|2021-09-06|Revelation|revelation.png}}
{{comicsrow|2511|2021-09-03|Recreate the Conditions|recreate the conditions.png}}
{{comicsrow|2510|2021-09-01|Modern Tools|modern tools.png}}
{{comicsrow|2509|2021-08-30|Useful Geometry Formulas|useful geometry formulas.png}}
{{comicsrow|2508|2021-08-27|Circumappendiceal Somectomy|circumappendiceal somectomy.png}}
{{comicsrow|2507|2021-08-25|USV-C|usv c.png}}
{{comicsrow|2506|2021-08-23|Projecting|projecting.png}}
{{comicsrow|2505|2021-08-20|News Story Reaction|news story reaction.png}}
{{comicsrow|2504|2021-08-18|Fissile Raspberry Isotopes|fissile raspberry isotopes 2x.png}}
{{comicsrow|2503|2021-08-16|Memo Spike Connector|memo spike connector.png}}
{{comicsrow|2502|2021-08-13|Every Data Table|every data table.png}}
{{comicsrow|2501|2021-08-11|Average Familiarity|average familiarity.png}}</onlyinclude>
|}

[[Category:Comics| z]]