explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2249: I Love the 20s

2020-01-03T20:35:21Z

172.68.65.36: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2249
| date = January 1, 2020
| title = I Love the 20s
| image = i love the 20s.png
| titletext = Billboard's "Best of the 80s" chart includes Blondie's 1980 hit "Call Me." QED.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a PEDANT. Explain title text.}}
This comic was released on the first day of the year {{w|2020}}. It was the second of two [[:Category:New Year|New Year comics]] around the 2019-2020 New Year, after [[2248: New Year's Eve]].

The comic opens with [[Megan]], [[Cueball]], [[White Hat]], and [[Ponytail]] celebrating the new year and discussing their relief that the change of decade brings with it two beneficial side-effects; firstly, they can now unambiguously name the decade "the 20s", and secondly, since the decade has a well-defined name, any cultural trends that begin in the 20s can be attributed to the decade itself, and not to the generation that happens to coincide with it.

White Hat, however, tries a couple of times to raise a pedantic objection: he believes that the new decade does not "officially" start until 2021.

Ponytail corrects him on this, but he refuses to accept the correction until Megan cites an unlikely source: the fact that the {{w|VH1}} television show
{{w|I Love the '90s (American TV series)|''I Love the '90s''}} categorized MC Hammer's 1990 single "{{w|U Can't Touch This}}" as a 90s song, which supports Ponytail's definition of decade. The joke is that a pop culture documentary is not an authoritative source for definitions of time standards, yet for some reason everyone is willing to accept its authority on such matters anyway.

The disagreement over the definition of when decades start is due to the fact that there is more than one way to count decades. You could do it in one of the following two ways:
*By counting every span of ten years that has occurred since the start of year 1 in the Common Era (White Hat's definition)
*By taking the digit that is common to all years in a given ten-year span (Ponytail's definition)

Ponytail's definition is the one in common usage. For example, when we say "the 1980s", we mean "the span of ten years that all began with the digits 198". This is a "cardinal" method of counting decades, since we are only concerned with identifying a particular set of ten years.

White Hat's definition, on the other hand, is an "ordinal" method, since it implies that we are counting the number of ten-year spans ''since the first one'', which is defined to have begun in the year 1.

While White Hat's definition is not technically ''wrong'' - it is a valid way to count decades - Ponytail notes that this is not how decades are typically determined, and the fact that we count centuries in an ordinal way does not mean that we should do the same with decades.

(To further confuse the issue: even though we ''do'' count centuries ordinally (eg. "1st century", "20th century", etc.), most people aren't aware that the first century began on the year 1, so most people would count 2000 as being in the 21th century - even though, by the ordinal definition, the 21th century did not start until 2001!)

"{{w|Aughts}}" and "Teens" were names suggested for the {{w|2000s_(decade)|2000s}} and {{w|2010s}} respectively; however, neither of those names managed to gain widespread acceptance.

{{w|Millennials}} is a name given to the generation which was born in the 80s and 90s, such that they began entering adulthood in the 2000s. The term was sometimes used pejoratively by older generations who view millennials as immature or complacent, particularly during the 2010s. The comic speculates that millennials may have been unfairly targeted due to the fact that the decade didn't have an easily-identifiable name; if it had, then people might have attributed their misgivings about modern culture to the decade itself, instead of singling out a demographic. This phenomenon was previously discussed in [[1849: Decades]].

Continuing the dubious "proof" offered by Megan, the title text goes on to use the {{w|Billboard (magazine)|Billboard}} [https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-billboards-top-songs-80s Best of the 80s] chart as proof that the 1980s started in 1980, as their chart includes {{w|Blondie (band)|Blondie's}} "{{w|Call Me (Blondie song)|Call Me}}", which was released in 1980. The title text ends with {{w|Q.E.D.|QED}} ("quod erat demonstrandum"), which literally means "what was to be shown", and is traditionally used at the end of a mathematical proof to mean "thus it has been demonstrated", as if this second landmark piece of evidence proves Megan's point as conclusively as a mathematical proof.

==Transcript==
:[Megan walks in from the left greeting Cueball, White Hat, and Ponytail standing in a line, the last two looking in her direction.]
:Megan: Happy new decade!
:Ponytail: Welcome to the '20s!
:White Hat: '''''Actually—'''''
:Ponytail: I'm excited we can name decades again.
:Ponytail: "Aughts" and "teens" never caught on.

:[Megan stops next to Cueball as White Hat has his finger raised.]
:White Hat: Actually, the new decade doesn't start-
:Ponytail: Mostly, I'm just glad we can go back to attributing cultural trends to decades instead of generations.

:[All four just stand normal.]
:Cueball: Yeah.
:Cueball: Decades were silly, but making everything about "millennials" turned out to be even worse.
:Ponytail: Seriously.

:[Only White Hat and Ponytail are shown, both with their arms held out to the sides.]
:White Hat: It's technically not a new decade until '''2021'''.
:Ponytail: OK, listen.
:Ponytail: If you're going to be pedantic, you should at least be right.
:White Hat: I '''''am''''' right!
:Ponytail: You're '''''not'''''.

:[Zoom in on White Hat and Ponytails upper parts as they gesture towards each other both raising their hands palm up. Megan interrupts them from off panel, as made clear in the next panel. Her voice comes out of a star burst on the left panel frame.]
:White Hat: See, the 20<sup>th</sup> century didn't start until--
:Ponytail: But decades aren't centuries. They're not cardinally numbered.
:White Hat: You don't get it. Let me draw a--
:Ponytail: No, '''''you''''' don't--
:Megan (off-panel): Stop!

:[All four characters are displayed again. Megan has raised a finger and all the others look at her.]
:Megan: I can resolve this.
:Megan: *Ahem*
:Megan: MC Hammer's ''U Can't Touch This'' (1990) was featured in '''''I Love the '90s''''', not ''''' '80s'''''.
:Ponytail: ...That settles that.
:White Hat: Yeah, I accept VH1's authority.
:White Hat: You win.

==Trivia==
* Millennials were also mentioned in [[1962: Generations]] and in [[2165: Millennials]]. Also, [[Randall]] himself is a millennial.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:New Year]]
[[Category:Pedantic]]

1920: Emoji Sports

2017-11-29T23:21:55Z

172.68.65.36: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1920
| date = November 24, 2017
| title = Emoji Sports
| image = emoji_sports.png
| titletext = No horse has yet managed the elusive Quadruple Crown—winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes, and the Missouri Horse Hole.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic, as the heading indicates, arbitrarily selects emoji and uses them to make up very bizarre sports. Although some of these might be completely normal, most of them take things to a completely absurd level.

The title text is a reference to the triple crown, which is an highly prestigious award given to a three-year-old thoroughbred horse who wins the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, the first three of the four listed events. The joke is that if Horse Hole was a real sport, then one who won a major competition for it, the Missouri Horse Hole, in addition to the three main horse racing events, would win a “Quadruple Crown".
{| class="wikitable"
!scope="col" style="width: 100px;" |Emoji
!scope="col" style="width: 150px;" |Sport
!scope="col" |Description
|-
|🤽‍♂️🌋
|Lavaball
|Sets the sport of water polo around or inside an active volcano. If the water is simply replaced with lava, the players would asphyxiate from the toxic fumes long before they burned to death in the molten rock. If a typical pool of water is involved, the introduction of lava would cause rapid evaporation and the release of {{w|Chlorine#Use_as_a_weapon|chlorine gas}}, which is destructive to living tissue. In any case, this game is not a good time.{{Citation needed}}
|-ly o
|🤾‍♀️🤺
|Bladeball
|Using a fencing foil to hit a ball would not only be inefficient, but would easily lead to the destruction of the ball instead.
|-
|💃💃⚽
|Fancyball
|Soccer played in high heels and dresses would be a problem for both kicking and running, with the grassy terrain exacerbating these issues, and these would lead to frequent injury.{{Citation needed}}
|-
|🕳️🏇🏇🏇
|Horse hole
| Jockeys ride their horses into a large pit. Needless to say, such a sport would constitute blatant animal abuse; the ensuing fall would seriously injure competing equines (as well as their jockeys if they don't bail out beforehand). If the horse's self-preservation instinct kicks in before reaching the edge, the jockey will likely be severely injured in the process, an outcome which would likely garner a lot less pity.<br/> Both this segment and the title text may relate to Episode 354 of My Brother My Brother And Me, "Beanfreak", where a potential punishment for losing horses in a race is described as a trapdoor leading to a "pony pile" beneath the track. (Many of the podcast's episodes deal with horse racing and horse behavior, including some impassioned conversations on the performance of specific horses and the unregulated nature of the widely recognized Triple Crown achievement.)
|-
|🔪🏀⛏️
|Basketball shredding
|The apparent point of this sport is to compete to destroy basketballs as quickly and/or as thoroughly as possible. There is some transgressive appeal in mistreating sports equipment, but hardly enough to keep a captive audience.
|-
|🥚🔭🕵️‍♀️
|Eggspotting
|This could be a combination of {{w|Egg_hunt|egg hunting}} and {{w|birdwatching}}. The emojis imply that said eggs would have to be found alone in nature, as if they were wild animals. Though it might be spotting of eggs of the wild animals in their nests.
|-
|⛷️🐊
|Alligator jumping
|An unusual combination of attributes, and to get the alligators to adapt to a cold environment might be a challenge. The emoji is actually a crocodile.
|-
|👩🎣🧜‍♂️
|Merfishing
|Unless humans volunteer to get in costume, this sport is unlikely to have any successes, due to the rarity or nonexistence of {{w|Mermaid|mermaids}}.{{Citation needed}}
|-
|👨🏸🧚🏸👩
|Tinkerball
|Playing badminton with a fairy, named after [[wikipedia:Tinker Bell|Tinker Bell]]. Likely to injure the fairy.
|-
|🥌🦔🥌
|Hedgehog curling
|Hedgehogs are not ideal projectiles for sports, as {{w|Alice's Adventures in Wonderland}} has already demonstrated, and such an idea would likely be considered animal abuse on top of the impracticality.
|-
|🗜️🍔
|Burger clamping
|Perhaps a challenge to fit a tall burger into a bite-sized height, though said clamp is more likely to pierce the burger than to flatten it.
|-
|👩‍🚀🏹🛰️
|Consequence archery
|Archery on a station could cause damage to its structure leading to the potentially explosive decompression of the station, and necessitate the evacuation of the astronauts aboard. If played outside, stray arrows could still cause disaster by setting debris into motion or by hitting vessels or equipment. Another dangerous consequence of shooting an arrow while floating in without a jetpack would be that the shot propulses the astronaut in the opposite direction of the arrow, setting him or her off to drift away helplessly into .
|-
|🦉➡️📬
|Owlstuffing
|This appears to consist of attempting to stuff owls into mailboxes, which would be doubly illegal, because it would be cruel to the owls and interfere with delivery of the mail. The mailbox is shown with the flag up, which normally indicates that there is mail in it, but it appears to be empty, perhaps so that the owl can be stuffed in it. Possibly a reference to owls carrying mail in the Harry Potter series.
|-
|🍴🕯️🍴
|Candle eating
|An even more unhealthy form of {{w|competitive eating}}. Eating large amounts of candle wax can cause {{w|Bowel_obstruction|intestinal obstruction}}.
|-
|⛳💣🏌️‍♀️
|Consequence golf
|The "consequence" of this game is simple: the bomb's eventual explosion necessitates efficient playing. Golfing with a bomb would likely significantly reduce the par on each hole, depending on the length of the fuse, and due to the threat of explosion, par likely would not be able to be exceeded unless the unskilled golfer is also very fast. There would be definite damage to the course and golfers unless the holes extinguished the bombs of golfers who succeeded in time. The balance and rolling of the balls would also be impeded by the fuses and caps.
|-
|👉🐍👈
|Snake shaming
|Probably a play on snake charming. Also a possible reference to the biblical story where the snake is shamed for deceiving mankind by being doomed to crawl on its belly.
|-
|🔥🧗‍♀️🔥
|Hell escape
|Trying to escape the {{w|lake of fire}} is the pastime of damned souls, but perhaps living people are instead sent there and have to return home.
|-
|🎮🥑🎮
|Multiplayer avocado
|Unless a game based on avocados is the subject, there is, to say the least, a hardware compatibility issue here. Very different from the adult version, multiplayer eggplant (🎮🍆🎮; see [[1870: Emoji Movie Reviews]]).
|}

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

:<big>New sports</big>
:created from random emoji

:[Man Playing Water Polo + Volcano]
:🤽‍♂️🌋 Lavaball

:[Woman Playing Handball + Person Fencing]
:🤾‍♀️🤺 Bladeball

:[Woman Dancing (2 emojis) + Soccer Ball]
:💃💃⚽ Fancyball

:[Hole + Horse Racing (3 emojis)]
:🕳️🏇🏇🏇 Horse hole

:[Kitchen Knife + Basketball + Pick]
:🔪🏀⛏️ Basketball shredding

:[Egg + Telescope + Woman Detective]
:🥚🔭🕵️‍♀️ Eggspotting

:[Skier + Crocodile]
:⛷️🐊 Alligator jumping

:[Woman + Fishing Pole + Merman]
:👩🎣🧜‍♂️ Merfishing

:[Man + Badminton + Fairy + Badminton + Woman]
:👨🏸🧚🏸👩 Tinkerball

:[Curling Stone + Hedgehog + Curling Stone]
:🥌🦔🥌 Hedgehog curling

:[Clamp + Hamburger]
:🗜️🍔 Burger clamping

:[Woman Astronaut + Bow and Arrow + Satellite]
:👩‍🚀🏹🛰️ Consequence archery

:[Owl + Right Arrow + Open Mailbox]
:🦉➡️📬 Owlstuffing

:[Fork and Knife + Candle + Fork and Knife]
:🍴🕯️🍴 Candle eating

:[Flag in Hole + Bomb + Woman Golfing]
:⛳💣🏌️‍♀️ Consequence golf

:[Pointing Right + Snake + Pointing Left]
:👉🐍👈 Snake shaming

:[Fire + Woman Climbing + Fire]
:🔥🧗‍♀️🔥 Hell escape

:[Video Game + Avocado + Video Game]
:🎮🥑🎮 Multiplayer avocado

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

1920: Emoji Sports

2017-11-29T23:19:11Z

172.68.65.36: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1920
| date = November 24, 2017
| title = Emoji Sports
| image = emoji_sports.png
| titletext = No horse has yet managed the elusive Quadruple Crown—winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont Stakes, and the Missouri Horse Hole.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Still needs more explanation and a less humorous explanation of each sport concept - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic, as the heading indicates, arbitrarily selects emoji and uses them to make up very bizarre sports. Although some of these might be completely normal, most of them take things to a completely absurd level.

The title text is a reference to the triple crown, which is an highly prestigious award given to a three-year-old thoroughbred horse who wins the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, the first three of the four listed events. The joke is that if Horse Hole was a real sport, then one who won a major competition for it, the Missouri Horse Hole, in addition to the three main horse racing events, would win a “Quadruple Crown".
{| class="wikitable"
!scope="col" style="width: 100px;" |Emoji
!scope="col" style="width: 150px;" |Sport
!scope="col" |Description
|-
|🤽‍♂️🌋
|Lavaball
|Sets the sport of water polo around or inside an active volcano. If the water is simply replaced with lava, the players would asphyxiate from the toxic fumes long before they burned to death in the molten rock. If a typical pool of water is involved, the introduction of lava would cause rapid evaporation and the release of {{w|Chlorine#Use_as_a_weapon|chlorine gas}}, which is destructive to living tissue. In any case, this game is not a good time.{{Citation needed}}
|-ly o
|🤾‍♀️🤺
|Bladeball
|Using a fencing foil to hit a ball would not only be inefficient, but would easily lead to the destruction of the ball instead.
|-
|💃💃⚽
|Fancyball
|Soccer played in high heels and dresses would be a problem for both kicking and running, with the grassy terrain exacerbating these issues, and these would lead to frequent injury.{{Citation needed}}
|-
|🕳️🏇🏇🏇
|Horse hole
| Jockeys ride their horses into a large pit. Needless to say, such a sport would constitute blatant animal abuse; the ensuing fall would seriously injure competing equines (as well as their jockeys if they don't bail out beforehand). If the horse's self-preservation instinct kicks in before reaching the edge, the jockey will likely be severely injured in the process, an outcome which would likely garner a lot less pity.<br/> Both this segment and the title text may relate to Episode 354 of My Brother My Brother And Me, "Beanfreak", where a potential punishment for losing horses in a race is described as a trapdoor leading to a "pony pile" beneath the track. (Many of the podcast's episodes deal with horse racing and horse behavior, including some impassioned conversations on the performance of specific horses and the unregulated nature of the widely recognized Triple Crown achievement.)
|-
|🔪🏀⛏️
|Basketball shredding
|The apparent point of this sport is to compete to destroy basketballs as quickly and/or as thoroughly as possible. There is some transgressive appeal in mistreating sports equipment, but hardly enough to keep a captive audience.
|-
|🥚🔭🕵️‍♀️
|Eggspotting
|This could be a combination of {{w|Egg_hunt|egg hunting}} and {{w|birdwatching}}. The emojis imply that said eggs would have to be found alone in nature, as if they were wild animals. Though it might be spotting of eggs of the wild animals in their nests.
|-
|⛷️🐊
|Alligator jumping
|An unusual combination of attributes, and to get the alligators to adapt to a cold environment might be a challenge. The emoji is actually a crocodile.
|-
|👩🎣🧜‍♂️
|Merfishing
|Unless humans volunteer to get in costume, this sport is unlikely to have any successes, due to the rarity or nonexistence of {{w|Mermaid|mermaids}}.{{Citation needed}}
|-
|👨🏸🧚🏸👩
|Tinkerball
|Playing badminton with a fairy, named after [[wikipedia:Tinker Bell|Tinker Bell]]. Likely to injure the fairy.
|-
|🥌🦔🥌
|Hedgehog curling
|Hedgehogs are not ideal projectiles for sports, as {{w|Alice's Adventures in Wonderland}} has already demonstrated, and such an idea would likely be considered animal abuse on top of the impracticality.
|-
|🗜️🍔
|Burger clamping
|Perhaps a challenge to fit a tall burger into a bite-sized height, though said clamp is more likely to pierce the burger than to flatten it.
|-
|👩‍🚀🏹🛰️
|Consequence archery
|Archery on a station could cause damage to its structure leading to the potentially explosive decompression of the station, and necessitate the evacuation of the astronauts aboard. If played outside, stray arrows could still cause disaster by setting debris into motion or by hitting vessels or equipment. Another dangerous consequence of shooting an arrow while floating in without a jetpack would be that the shot propulses the astronaut in the opposite direction of the arrow, setting him or her off to drift away helplessly into .
|-
|🦉➡️📬
|Owlstuffing
|This appears to consist of attempting to stuff owls into mailboxes, which would be doubly illegal, because it would be cruel to the owls and interfere with delivery of the mail. The mailbox is shown with the flag up, which normally indicates that there is mail in it, but it appears to be empty, perhaps so that the owl can be stuffed in it. Possibly a reference to owls carrying mail in the Harry Potter series.
|-
|🍴🕯️🍴
|Candle eating
|An even more unhealthy form of {{w|competitive eating}}. Eating large amounts of candle wax can cause {{w|Bowel_obstruction|intestinal obstruction}}.
|-
|⛳💣🏌️‍♀️
|Consequence golf
|The "consequence" of this game is simple: the bomb's eventual explosion necessitates efficient playing. Golfing with a bomb would likely significantly reduce the par on each hole, depending on the length of the fuse, and due to the threat of explosion, par likely would not be able to be exceeded unless the unskilled golfer is also very fast. There would be definite damage to the course and golfers unless the holes extinguished the bombs of golfers who succeeded in time. The balance and rolling of the balls would also be impeded by the fuses and caps.
|-
|👉🐍👈
|Snake shaming
|Probably a play on snake charming. Also a possible reference to the biblical story where the snake is shamed for deceiving mankind by being doomed to crawl on its belly.
|-
|🔥🧗‍♀️🔥
|Hell escape
|Trying to escape the {{w|lake of fire}} is the pastime of damned souls, but perhaps living people are instead sent there and have to return home.
|-
|🎮🥑🎮
|Multiplayer avocado
|Unless a game based on avocados is the subject, there is, to say the least, a hardware compatibility issue here. Very different from the adult version, multiplayer eggplant (🎮🍆🎮; see [[1870: Emoji Movie Reviews]]).
|}

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

:<big>New sports</big>
:created from random emoji

:[Man Playing Water Polo + Volcano]
:🤽‍♂️🌋 Lavaball

:[Woman Playing Handball + Person Fencing]
:🤾‍♀️🤺 Bladeball

:[Woman Dancing (2 emojis) + Soccer Ball]
:💃💃⚽ Fancyball

:[Hole + Horse Racing (3 emojis)]
:🕳️🏇🏇🏇 Horse hole

:[Kitchen Knife + Basketball + Pick]
:🔪🏀⛏️ Basketball shredding

:[Egg + Telescope + Woman Detective]
:🥚🔭🕵️‍♀️ Eggspotting

:[Skier + Crocodile]
:⛷️🐊 Alligator jumping

:[Woman + Fishing Pole + Merman]
:👩🎣🧜‍♂️ Merfishing

:[Man + Badminton + Fairy + Badminton + Woman]
:👨🏸🧚🏸👩 Tinkerball

:[Curling Stone + Hedgehog + Curling Stone]
:🥌🦔🥌 Hedgehog curling

:[Clamp + Hamburger]
:🗜️🍔 Burger clamping

:[Woman Astronaut + Bow and Arrow + Satellite]
:👩‍🚀🏹🛰️ Consequence archery

:[Owl + Right Arrow + Open Mailbox]
:🦉➡️📬 Owlstuffing

:[Fork and Knife + Candle + Fork and Knife]
:🍴🕯️🍴 Candle eating

:[Flag in Hole + Bomb + Woman Golfing]
:⛳💣🏌️‍♀️ Consequence golf

:[Pointing Right + Snake + Pointing Left]
:👉🐍👈 Snake shaming

:[Fire + Woman Climbing + Fire]
:🔥🧗‍♀️🔥 Hell escape

:[Video Game + Avocado + Video Game]
:🎮🥑🎮 Multiplayer avocado

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Emoji]]

1878: Earth Orbital Diagram

2017-08-20T01:25:45Z

172.68.65.36: /* Explanation */ added in missing comma to improve clarity

{{comic
| number = 1878
| date = August 18, 2017
| title = Earth Orbital Diagram
| image = earth_orbital_diagram.png
| titletext = You shouldn't look directly at a partial eclipse because of the damage that can be caused by improperly aligning the solar-lunar orbital plane with the orbital bones around your eye.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This comic is the third consecutive comic published in the week before the {{w|solar eclipse}} occurring on Monday, {{w|Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017|August 21, 2017}} which is a total solar eclipse and visible in totality within a band across the {{w|contiguous United States}} from west to east. The other comics are [[1876: Eclipse Searches]] and [[1877: Eclipse Science]].

The comic claims that the reason that eclipses don't happen every month is simple to understand by looking at an orbital diagram. Ironically, the cartoon has so many parts and labels that it is far more difficult to understand than is implied. While the graph itself is based on {{w|Orbital elements|astronomical definitions}}, all the labels are nonsense in this context. In effect, the comic is a parody of a common joke in which a person asks a scientist a question, the scientist begins by saying "It's really quite simple", then proceeds to give a very lengthy and highly technical explanation that non-scientists would not be expected to understand.

All of the labels in the diagram are complicated words or phrases. Some are related to orbital mechanics (e.g. "equinox" and "perihelion"), while others are wholly unrelated or even made up. Each label is nonsensical in its place in the diagram. Compare/contrast with the standard {{w|Kepler orbit|Kepler Orbit}} diagram.

The title text references warnings to not look directly into the sun, but parodies those warnings by referring to 'orbit', the anatomical term for the eye socket.

===Labels and Their Astronomical Meanings===

;Arctangent
*{{w|Arctangent}} is the inverse function of the tangent function of trigonometry. You can determine a non-right angle of a right triangle by taking the arctangent of the length of the opposite side divided by the length of the adjacent side.
*The angle shown in the comic has no astronomical meaning.

;Astral plane
*The {{w|Astral plane}} is a plane of existence in various esoteric theories. It features prominently in Dungeons and Dragons cosmology, connecting the various other planes of existence.
*The picture shows the {{w|Orbit_of_the_Moon|lunar orbital plane}}, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth, tilted about 5.1 degrees from the ecliptic.

;Declension
*{{w|Declension}} is the inflection of nouns in a language.
*In astronomy, the {{w|Declination|declination}} is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system. It is measured north or south of the celestial equator, like the geographical latitude on Earth. But in the picture the label is at the angle for the axial tilt of the Earth.

;Determinant of the date of Easter
*In Western Christianity {{w|Easter}} always falls on the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon after the beginning of spring (equinox). The ecclesiastical full moon is determined by a calendar that approximates the actual time of the full moon, Thus the date of easter is defined by a combination of a solar and a moon calendar. The position of that angle isn't that bad but it should be not more than 30 degrees (slightly more than one month.)
*In mathematics, the determinant is a function of numerical matrices. In this context, however, it apparently refers to something that directly determines the date of Easter.

;Dimples of Venus
*The {{w|Dimples of Venus}} are indentations sometimes visible on the human lower back.
*In astronomy the {{w|Belt of Venus}} is a shadow cast by the Earth visible in its atmosphere.

;Enceliopsis
*{{w|Enceliopsis}} are small genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, appropriately known as "sunrays".
*In astronomy this point has also no specific meaning. But {{w|Enceladus}} is a moon around {{w|Saturn}}.

;Equinox / Solstice
{{w|Equinox}} and {{w|Solstice}} have very different meanings:
*An Equinox is one of two instants in the year when the sun is exactly over the equator; the length of day and night are very nearly equal that day at all locations on the planet, and (in the United States) it is the first day of Spring or Autumn, depending on the time of year.
*A Solstice is one of two instants in the year when the sun's angle is maximally far from Earth's equator; when one occurs, the length of the day or night is shortest or longest (depending on whether one is in the northern or southern hemisphere), and (in the United States) it marks the first day of summer or winter.

Both types occur because the Earth's rotation axis is tilted (at 23.4 degrees) from its orbital plane (ecliptic) about the Sun.

Jokingly insisting that two different terms are American/British variants of the same word has been the topic of [[1677: Contrails]].

;Hypothecate
*{{w|Hypothecate}} is a legal verb that means something similar to "make a mortgage".
*The depicted angle has no meaning, but a {{w|Hypotenuse}} is the longest side of a right-angled triangle. Here it is the shortest side on a non right-angled triangle.

;Obsequity
*Obsequity means the state of being obsequious (showing an indecorous willingness to obey or serve, or "sucking up").
*In astronomy the correct word is {{w|Obliquity}}, meaning an axial tilt.

;Perihelix
*This is a portmanteau of helix and perihelion.
*The {{w|perihelion}} is the point in a elliptical solar orbit that is closest to the Sun.

;Prolapse
*A {{w|Prolapse}} is a medical condition in which an internal organ is slipped forward or down.
*{{w|Retrograde and prograde motion}} are terms used to describe the apparent motion of celestial objects through the sky.

;Sagittal plane
*The {{w|Sagittal plane}} is an anatomical plane, dividing the body in left and right.
*The correct label in the picture would be the {{w|Ecliptic plane}}. The plane the Earth orbits the Sun.
*{{w|Sagittarius (constellation)|Sagittarius}} is one of the stellar constellations of the Zodiac. The center of the Milky Way lies in this constellation.

;Solar plexus
*The {{w|Solar plexus}} is a network of nerves located in the abdomen. It was the name of [[64: Solar Plexus]].
*{{w|Solar}} is an adjective referring to the Sun, the star in our solar system.

;Tropopause
*The {{w|Tropopause}} is the boundary in our atmosphere between the troposphere and stratosphere, defined as the boundary where air ceases to cool with increasing elevation. It is 9-17 km above sea level, not the thousands of kilometers as depicted here.

;Angle between the Astral and the Sagittal Planes
* The angle depicted is the inclination of the moon orbit. The planes are marked with greeks letter, the angle is marked with a symbol resembling the greek ''phi'' (ϕ).

;Errata
* Errata are corrections in a published text (e.g. a newspaper article) issued after the publication.
* The angle depicted as errata is half the angular size of the sun, which has to match the lunar angular size to cause a solar total eclipse.

==Explanation for "Why isn't there a (solar) eclipse every month?"==

If the plane of where the Earth orbits the Sun and where the Moon orbits the Earth were completely aligned, then there would be a solar eclipse at every new moon (once every {{w|Orbit_of_the_Moon#Lunar_periods| 29.5 days}}) and a lunar eclipse at every full moon (half a lunar period about 14.7 days after a New Moon). However, the plane in which the Moon orbits the Earth is tilted with an inclination of 5 degrees relative to that of the ecliptic plane (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Eclipses are only possible during two eclipse seasons each year (half a year apart) where for a period of 31 to 37 days the Sun is nearly aligned with the two points in the tilted Earth-Moon plane where the Moon crosses the ecliptic plane. During an eclipse season at the time of a new moon there will be solar eclipses visible from certain locations and during full moons there will be lunar eclipses.

[[Image:Eclipse_Diagram.jpg]]

The real explanation of eclipses is evident from this xkcd comic, but is labeled with a fictional character similar to a Greek phi but with two vertical lines; the remaining labels also do not contribute to this explanation and exist only to distract or misinform the reader.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[An orbital map of the Earth is shown. The Sun is in the center, the Earth is at the right bottom, and the Moon is left below the Earth.]
:'''Why isn't there an eclipse every month?'''
:This is a common question! The answer is made clear by a quick look at the Earth's orbital diagram:

:[Label Sun:]
:Solar plexus

:[Label on the Earth's plane:]
:Sagittal plane

:[Labels on Earth's orbit (beginning at the Earth counterclockwise):]
:Perihelix, Declension, Obsequity, Hypothecate, Enceliopsis, Equinox (''Solstice'' in British English)

:[Two angles in the plane are labeled as:]
:Determinant of the date of Easter, Arctangent

:[The plane of the Moon is pictured in a small angle to the Earth's plane and named Astral Plane. The angle is presented between two lines (Greek Nu or Gamma and a double Greek Chi) and identified by a "Game Of Thrones" 'O' (a character that looks similar to a Greek Phi but with two vertical lines).]
:[The labels at the Moon's path are:]
:Tropopause, Prolapse, Errata.

:[An arrow points to the Earth at the zero meridian on the equator. The label reads:]
:Dimples of Venus

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Astronomy]]

Talk:1876: Eclipse Searches

2017-08-15T17:44:39Z

172.68.65.36: Continental Span of Eclipse

I don't get it. - BK {{unsigned ip|108.162.216.16}}

Because people are apparently (according to the Google-search data, anyways) more excited about the upcoming eclipse than they were about the election, Cueball is predicting that society is going to go a little crazy when the eclipse actually happens. Megan adds that the traffic jams will likely be insurmountable and "if you're planning to be on the road, bring water"--i.e., don't expect to go anywhere fast. In the title text Mr. Munroe further explains this statement, noting that past eclipses have generated bad traffic jams and those were before the days of widespread social media networking, which will certainly make matters much worse. [[User:Berets|Berets]] ([[User talk:Berets|talk]]) 17:21, 14 August 2017 (UTC)

::To be fair, not that many of us were excited for election day. The Trumpists were excited. The #imwithheriguess weren't. We wanted Clinton because she wasn't Trump. Nervous about the insanity that would occur if Trump won, but not excited about the mediocrity that would happen if Clinton won. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.88|108.162.245.88]] 21:43, 14 August 2017 (UTC)
:::Don't forget the sizeable number of people who had the same opinions, but with the roles reversed (wanting Trump because he wasn't Hillary). Most of the people I know who wanted Trump were in that group. [[User:Mulan15262|Mulan15262]] ([[User talk:Mulan15262|talk]]) 04:02, 15 August 2017 (UTC)
:I guess the association with traffic jams is that in the USofA, people are used to stand for hours in line to vote. --[[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.29|198.41.242.29]] 17:47, 14 August 2017 (UTC)

I remember the 1970 eclipse! Here in Northern Virginia, it was nearly total. I was nine and my dad made us a pinhole camera. Now I'm gonna have to make one for my kids, since it looks like the goggles are pretty much sold out. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.118|162.158.255.118]] 19:08, 14 August 2017 (UTC)

I understand this XKCD differently. The fact that no one looks up "eclipse" is that something bad will happen during it, that's why Cueball is urged to bring water, as in essential survival gear. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.106|108.162.216.106]] 20:12, 14 August 2017 (UTC) AM
:Yeah, and the Moon will fall into the Sun like the ISS did before: [[1830: ISS Solar Transit 2]] --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:26, 14 August 2017 (UTC)
: Sounds more like 1868 (shouldn't that be linked in the explanation?) :) [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:29, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

What's funny to me is that this growing interest is completely fictitious within the context of my experience, LOL! I have LITERALLY only heard about this eclipse on XKCD, if it were any other comic I would never even have the thought that an eclipse might really be coming. :) I've really seen and heard no mention anywhere else (all I can think right now is that this explanation talks about it crossing the States, maybe it'll be too south to see here in Canada, therefore nobody around here is interested?). It also mystifies me how this and 1868 (again, shouldn't it be linked here?) seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill. An eclipse isn't this weird, uncommon, unheard-of phenomenon, why the big deal???!?! [[User:NiceGuy1|NiceGuy1]] ([[User talk:NiceGuy1|talk]]) 05:29, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

: Because Eclipses are awesome. Its like a good song on the radio it passes quickly but sticks with you for days (or weeks) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.250|141.101.98.250]] 07:29, 15 August 2017 (UTC)
:: Good songs on radio? I heard about these, but I doubt such mystical thing exists. As for the eclipse: I guess I'll watch the live stream. Or sleep. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:45, 15 August 2017 (UTC)
: Yes, eclipses are not too uncommon, but you still have to be lucky to experience one first hand. "Watching a live stream" of an eclipse is like watching porn: Both can be entertaining, but it's nothing like the real thing. [[User:LordHorst|LordHorst]] ([[User talk:LordHorst|talk]]) 08:52, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

:I've heard talk about it outside of XKCD, but I live and work in the 90% band so I think that you are correct about the local variation in how much people care.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.232|108.162.237.232]] 14:04, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

:This eclipse will have a nearly 70 mile wide path of totality cross the entire continental US. The next major eclipse in the US will be in 2024, but it will cross from Mexico through the Great Lakes and New England. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.36|172.68.65.36]] 17:44, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

Talk:1828: ISS Solar Transit

2017-04-26T12:25:48Z

172.68.65.36:

The staging of this comic is really confusing... Top to bottom, right to left is just a weird order. It took me a little while to figure out that the solid white space in the top row is actually a double high, and not a solid white beat panel. I was thinking that the picture was completely whited out. [[User:Andyd273|Andyd273]] ([[User talk:Andyd273|talk]]) 15:37, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

The comic reads left-to-right, not right-to-left... [[User:Rajakiit|Raj-a-Kiit]] ([[User talk:Rajakiit|talk]]) 16:45, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

I disagree with the description that's posted. The joke is that Cueball is not trying to take a picture of the sun - he is trying to take a picture of the ISS while it passes in front of the sun. So it is true that the object being photographed (the ISS) is in direct sunlight, just as the label says. The problem with the label is that it's incomplete: in context, it really means something like, "The object being photographed is in lighting equivalent to direct sunlight falling on the surface of the planet Earth with no intervening filters." The ISS (and the moon, as mentioned in the title text) are being directly struck by sunlight but do not fit the rest of the implied context of the label.
: So shouldn't it then use the 'Shade' option for the ISS? ;) -- Denny
:Technically, he's trying to take a picture of the shadow of the ISS, since he's not looking for the reflected sunlight. Since the Sun is incandescent, that filter would also apply, but only for the background, not the object in question. Also, isn't that kind of the joke, here?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.51|162.158.74.51]] 22:48, 24 April 2017 (UTC)
::Photographically, incandescent filters are used to correct color when using standard tungsten light as the primary light source. Without supplemental lighting (e.g., electronic flash), images appear more yellow. 35mm film can be corrected using a blue filter over the lens. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.36|172.68.65.36]] 12:25, 26 April 2017 (UTC)
: The side of the ISS that he is photographing is not being struck by sunlight. The other side of the ISS (the side facing toward the sun and away from earth) is being struck by sunlight. He is photographing the side facing away from the sun and toward the earth.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.69.45|162.158.69.45]] 02:18, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

I have a strong suspicion that no matter HOW you try to white-balance image like this it wouldn't be correct. The idea behind white balance is to show how the photographed object would REFLECT white light, and Sun certainly doesn't reflect enough for it to be visible over the light it radiates. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 01:50, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Isn't the joke that that a solar filter is really a physical piece of hardware while Cueball is incorrectly using a software filter? Yeah, you might need to use a software filter to color correct the picture in reality, but this being Cueball he is probably trying to do it in software alone. --[[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.17|141.101.104.17]] 10:39, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

The title text is wrong though. A reflection of direct sunlight (the visible moon for a full moon) isn't direct sunlight.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.138|172.68.65.138]] 11:56, 25 April 2017 (UTC)
:The Moon is in direct sunlight. If something that is hit by sunlight and then this sunlight gets to your camera with out interference then that must be what is meant by direct sunlight. Else nothing is in direct sunlight (except when taking a picture directly into the sun, which is not what is meant by direct sunlight). But taking pictures of something on Earth in moon light is not direct sunlight. So title text is correct but more is needed on why that option would also make no sense. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:49, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Do we need a Category:Camera?? Or photography? Randall has made many comics with this as the subject. Two are already linked above. Then there are [[1314: Photos]] and [[648: Fall Foliage]] etc.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:53, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Regarding if direct sunlight is the correct white balance for photographing the moon: There could be a slight difference in color, because the sunlight is reflected by the moon before being filtered by the atmosphere instead of being filtered by the atmosphere first before being reflected by the photographed object, but this should be negligible. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 14:53, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

1358: NRO

2017-02-23T12:33:41Z

172.68.65.36: /* Explanation */ Briefly explaining the function of the NRO

{{comic
| number = 1358
| date = April 21, 2014
| title = NRO
| image = nro.png
| titletext = 'DISPATCHING DRONE TO TARGET COORDINATES.' 'Wait, crap, wrong button. Oh jeez.'
}}

==Explanation==
''Where's Waldo?'' (the North American renaming of the British ''{{w|Where's Wally?}}'') is a children's puzzle book in which you have to locate 'Waldo', a character with a distinctive striped shirt and hat, in a picture crowded with hundreds of characters. This is harder than it sounds, since the characters are both very small and quite densely packed on the page, and the pages (especially in later books) are often littered with "decoy" characters wearing similar articles of clothing to Waldo's. In some cases, almost ''all'' characters as well as several objects have the red-and-white stripes.

[[Cueball]] and his friend are using satellite imaging to find Waldo, by holding the book up to the sky and viewing it on the computer, presumably using some advanced image processing software to identify Waldo among the crowd. This would require a very advanced camera, as resolutions are usually much lower than would be necessary to resolve the characters in a Where's Waldo book. But since Cueball works at the {{w|National Reconnaissance Office}} (NRO), the US government agency responsible for operating spy satellites, he probably has access to some powerful satellite-mounted cameras.

The humor in this being, while he could be using that power for much more important things, he's instead trying to solve a simple game. Further, the Cueballs could probably hook up the image parsing software to a smaller camera on the ground, rather than a satellite-mounted camera. They would get even better results without using a camera by scanning the image and running it through the same image processing software.

The title text is implying that the Cueball operating the computer has accidentally launched a drone at the co-ordinates, which would be where he and his friend are standing. The drone is presumably a military drone armed with explosive weaponry — not a good thing for those on the receiving end.

==Transcript==
:Cueball and a friend are in a remote area. The friend is holding a ''Where's Waldo?'' book towards the sky.
:Laptop: [Target located]
:Cueball: Got him. Left edge, two inches down.
:The National Reconnaissance Office has an unusual approach to ''Where's Waldo''.

==Trivia==
*A ''What If'' comic examining the use of the {{w|Hubble Space Telescope}} for the purpose of taking photos from the earth's surface can be found here: [http://what-if.xkcd.com/32/ Hubble]. It just shows that current technology is not capable of achieving the image resolutions needed here.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]