explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2916: Machine

2024-10-30T10:26:24Z

172.69.194.10: Undo revision 355099 by 172.70.122.189 (talk) Redtext link..?

{{comic
| number = 2916
| date = April 5, 2024
| title = Machine
| image = machine_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x740px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Credible Machine
}}
* To experience the interactivity, visit the [https://xkcd.com/2916/ original comic].

==Explanation==
This interactive game is the 14th [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous April fools' comic was [[2765: Escape Speed]] from 2023, which was released on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. "Machine" has been updated multiple times in the weeks following its release, adding the following features:
* the trophy and shot glass props
* the cat, which swats balls in front of it
* the inanimate kitten and bun decorations
* a system of links, which encodes the XY coordinates of the currently viewed cell, and the time (i.e. the entire machine's state after a certain moderation action)
* a button to follow a nearby ball as it traverses through the machine, also preventing it from despawning

As referenced in the title text, this game is a spiritual successor to the 1990s and early 2000s PC puzzle game series {{w|The Incredible Machine}}, a game Randall played as a kid. Both games have several objects in common:
* fan
* cat
* ramps
* balls of varying densities

The comic starts in a main screen where the user can create a {{w|Rube Goldberg machine}} in a "Cell" where the goal is to route a constant stream of colored balls from inputs on the ceiling or walls to outputs of matching colors on the walls or floor. After the comic is first opened a window pops up over the machine where Cueball in a lab coat tells you to route the balls from the inputs to the outputs. A button opens a “tool panel” where there are large and small boards available for use, as well as some gimmicky stuff like prisms (which deflect marbles) and fans (which blow marbles around), plus decorative elements which have no effect on the balls.

Typically, inputs and outputs only accept balls of a single color. However, some outputs accept multiple colors, indicated by a double arrow, and some inputs produce multiple colors. When the player is designing their 'machine', this will involve multiple full streams merged into one (supplied by a double-exit on the adjacent submission). Machines now working in the full grid may, however, find that their sources now contain stray balls of other types that were not handled properly, but there is no way to force a re-edit of the machine to alter its behavior to account for this.

If any balls are left in your cell for more than 30 seconds, they fade away. The first time a ball fades away another popup informs you that the balls are removed for security reasons. An indicator next to each exit increases for each ball of the correct color that passes through an exit, and reduces when no balls pass through, or if balls of the wrong color pass through it. While that exit is not properly supplied it displays a red cross, which changes to a green tick when a sufficient, and sufficiently clean, stream of balls is supplied. The first time you have built a machine which succeeds in routing enough balls of the correct color to ''all'' relevant outputs, a popup will prompt you to submit your cell to be added to the public machine. (Subsequently, the submit button will quietly change from 'inactive' (pale) to clickable (dark). This will change back again if any ball transfers dip back below the required threshold for any reason, such as further editing or an end to a 'fluke' glut of accumulated balls.)

Choosing to submit your cell will give you a textbox to give this cell a name. Proceeding through that, you will now see your cell within the 'grid' and a 'live' feed of balls from any relevant neighboring cells (which may be more sporadic then the feed you designed your cell with, and contain stray balls of different types). If any supplying-neighbors are still marked as "under construction", they ''may'' provide the balls as if perfectly routed from their own (eventual) source, but will eventually dry up. If your newly submitted creation is placed in the lowest row of cells, balls will be dispensed through the exit at the bottom, but there will be no launcher to propel them towards the pit, and they will vanish as they leave the exit.

Upon reopening the link to this comic without coordinate and time parameters, your recently created machine will most likely not be visible in the space you built it in. [https://www.reddit.com/user/xzaphenia/comments/ Reddit user xzaphenia] has claimed on r/xkcd that this is because there is a moderation team (of which they are a member) and that [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c1ixmb/comment/kzc3rmg/ the main page only shows public, approved machines]. This team of people, including those credited as co-creators of this comic, select machines according to their preferences (and little to no formal criteria besides [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0sp60/comment/kz6hbgl/ coolness, innovativeness, effectiveness], and [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0bsk2/comment/kyvfean/ privacy concerns]). Given the number of 'bottom-layer' cells that are likely primed ready to be completed (e.g. the grid-width of twelve, perhaps staggered across adjacent rows) and the many possible worldwide contributors at any one time, it may be that the chances of being picked for permanence is low; and certainly would have been lower early on in the comic's existence during the initial frantic rush to participate. [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/1c0sp60/comment/kz6hbgl/ It is also claimed that at some point, moderation will be cut off and the machine will be considered "complete"].

<gallery heights="200" widths="150">
File:2916_popup_intro.png|Introduction popup
File:2916_popup_time.png|Time limit popup
File:2916_popup_submit.png|Submission popup
</gallery>

The button in the bottom right corner allows you to toggle between editing your own machine and a page where you can drag around to view all of the machines that have been submitted and accepted, with a title for each in the upper left corner. In this view you can see that all of the outputs are also inputs for another cell, except for the top row where the inputs come from off screen and the lowest row which output through a launcher of some kind to a set of four colored-coded containers far below. Any empty cells are marked off by yellow tape with the words "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" as well as "DJIA ↑ 31415" once in each cell. "DJIA" stands for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with "DJIA ↑ 31415" indicating that it rose to 31415 points, 31415 being the first five digits of pi, without the period. This would often be displayed on a yellow 'ticker', which might look superficially similar to the yellow barrier tape.

When viewing the whole machine, a button in the bottom left corner, added later, allows you to follow the path of the nearest ball as it passes from cell to cell. This will also make the ball you are following immortal - not subject to the 30s timeout rule. However, it will stop following at the bottom of the base machine -- it will not follow into the bottom holding containers, nor keep it immortal once down there. Another later addition was a button in the top left corner which copies a URL that will take you directly to the current cell that you are viewing. However, the link that is created will always show you the version of the machine at the time that you were viewing it, without any subsequent additions.

Whenever balls reach the bottom of the grid, they are directed towards four containers, one of each color. Most balls are accurately sent to their appropriate container, though there are some misfires. These containers are above a pit, and dump their contents every 11.5 seconds. Balls in the pit are subject to a 97 (approx) second culling rule (including time spent in the holding containers), unlike the balls in the cells above. If no balls are directed towards the containers, the pit will be empty. If at least one stream of balls is making it, Cueball and Megan sit in a small boat named the USS Buoyancy, and when sufficient balls are being deposited, the boat begins to float and move. Balls that miss or overspill the pit fall out of the bottom of the frame.

Under construction cells will feed balls of the appropriate color into neighboring cells so long as you are not looking at them. Once you scroll to look at them, the supply of balls stops and subsequent cells in the chain will not receive any; scroll away from them again and the supply will resume.

The grid is 12 cells wide, and grows in height. The largest size observed so far is 12x128, for a total of 1536 cells. The machine's height is determined by the lowest cell; this can be either your submitted cell, or a cell created by another user.

Imperfections in the machines (whether accidental or by design) and the impossibility of entirely avoiding collisions when crossing streams inevitably lead to significant levels of losses and pollution with the wrong color balls. Indeed, using the follow ball function appears to demonstrate that it is quite rare for a ball to survive more than several machines without getting stuck somewhere. This should mean that effectively no balls would reach the lower layers. This implies that there is some 'creative accounting' going on to ensure that cells lower in the grid still have balls to process - simulating flow only for a few nearby cells, while assuming that those cells themselves have pure, steady inputs.

There is a hard limit of 100 items (both physically interactive and purely decorative) that can be placed in any given arena. If you have placed 75 items, a count will appear in the component bar of your piece-count ("''##''/100"), which will go away again if you delete items to bring it below this count. The count text turns red at "100/100", at which point no more items can be added, only existing ones moved (or removed, to lower the count again).

===Toolbox items===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|+ List of objects
|-
! Description !! Effect !! Image
|-
| Plank || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_plank.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hammer || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_hammer.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Sword || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_sword.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hinged scoop&dagger; || Rotates around its hinge, tries to stay horizontal with a springy effect || [[File:2916_scoop.png|frameless|upright=0.25]] [[File:2916_scoop_mirrored.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Anvil || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_anvil.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Brick || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_brick.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Fan || Blows away balls in front of it. Different colors are affected by differing amounts (yellow balls are lightest, and can be levitated above an upward-facing fan).|| [[File:2916_fan.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Pillow || Balls will not bounce if they hit it || [[File:2916_pillow.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Bumper || Bounces balls away at significantly higher speed || [[File:2916_round_bumper.png|frameless|upright=0.125]] [[File:2916_bumper_left.png|frameless|upright=0.125]] [[File:2916_bumper_right.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Attractor/Black Hole* || Pulls balls toward center || [[File:2916_attractor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Repulsor/White hole* || Repels balls away from center || [[File:2916_repulsor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Prism || "Refracts" and internally-reflects balls as they otherwise pass through the object, the color of the ball ''may'' cause them to react (as much as possible) according to the respective color across the element. || [[File:2916_prism.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Wheel&Dagger; || Spins, deflects balls, can jam with enough resistance (e.g. glut of balls or against other elements). || [[File:2916_wheel.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| "Good job" trophy || Static obstacle || [[File:2916_trophy.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Glass cup || Static obstacle. Container, with a nominal capacity of up to four balls (in whole or in part) within it. || [[File:2916_cup.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || Swats away balls in front of itself (was added later) || [[File:2916_cat_new.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
! colspan="3" style="text-align:center" | Non-physical items
|-
| Right-facing Ponytail, with raised arms || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_ponytail_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Right-facing Ponytail, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_ponytail.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Left-facing Cueball, with raised arms || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_cueball_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Left-facing White Hat, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_whitehat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Rightwards-facing Knit Cap, in an 'action' pose || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_knitcap_resting.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Right-facing Knit Cap, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_knitcap.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Helmet-wearing figure, standing || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_helmet.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Squirrel || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_squirrel.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| "Probably Deterministic" sign || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_deterministic.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| [[1682: Bun|Bun]] || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_rabbit.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || Intangible decoration || [[File:2916_cat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|}

:<nowiki/>* — The Attractor and Repulsor are omnidirectional, but the area of effect can be resized to extend or restrict its influence. You do this by way of its bounding box with corner and mid-edged 'drag nodes' and a circular area that shows the current extent, which are only visible when the element is actively selected. This resize can be no larger than will make the box/circle touch the edges, no smaller than the fixed graphic and will always be identically proportioned in both axes.

:&dagger; — The hinged scoops are strictly horizontal, on building. They will rotate away from and (spring back to) horizontal according to interactions with balls or other non-decorative items that may be placed to disturb their balance, sometimes with further interesting interactions (that may or may not be intentional or useful). There are two selectable versions of this item. (The only ''other'' object class with a clear (and practical) asymmetry, for which a mirrored chirality can be chosen from the sidebar, are the two versions of triangular "Bonk"-bumpers.)

:&Dagger; — The wheel is an actively rotating element that starts off, by default, spinning anticlockwise. Pressing or tapping left/right arrow keys, when a placed wheel is selected, will adjust that wheel's rotation rate to be more/less anticlockwise. Adjusting it beyond zero rotation allows you to make it spin in the opposite direction.
:Rotation can be increased well beyond the point at which the {{w|wagon-wheel effect}} occurs, which may make it difficult to work out the spin direction of an overspeed wheel element (and thus which arrow keys will slow or speed up its rotation, if you have forgotten), though observing its impact upon any balls that strike it ''should'' make its current spin-direction obvious.
:The 'bounding editing box' will usually appear rotated, possibly according to the spinning graphic's current orientation upon selection, but remains at that (often non-orthagonal) angle even as the wheel spins (if it can) during this period of selection for editing.

All other items can be manually re-angled by a 'loop node' arm extending from the bounding box. If you cannot see the 'angle node' for such a selected item, which is normally at the top of any freshly placed item but follows any re-angling that may have already applied, it could be that you have placed the item too close to the edge in which direction the node extends. To rotate it, move the object away from the edge to access the construction node (after which, you can drag the object back if required – but see below).

Rotation may be limited by the {{w|minimum bounding box}} that is the 'selection box', this is not necessarily the more flush {{w|convex hull}} of the collision-map built into the graphic. Should a corner of the bounding box need to move across the edge of the build-area, it will do nothing more than touch the edge until there is sufficient angle-drag to snap it to the angle from which that corner now comes back away from the edge; or, when it has a long straight edge currently flush with the edge boundary, it may snap to exactly 180°, in rotation, whereupon the opposite long straight edge is flush to the construction area edge. All objects that are drag-moved, similarly, cannot be moved any further than their current bounding box touching the construction-area edging. The bounding box for the rotating wheel is a notable exception to this, being not under any direct angle-control by the player. Instead, it seems to use the bounding inscribed circle that defines the wheel edge iteslf.

Apart from some interactions between the hinged scoops and any element (including other hinged scoops), there is no preventative 'collision detection' between objects during user-placement, which may overlap/cover each other (the most recently spawned item graphically overlays any earlier one). The wheel object will only spin if not constrained by other physical elements (including the spokes of an adjacent wheel, not in counter-rotation) but can still be dragged and placed anywhere within the boundary of the construction area.

The continuous stream(s) of balls respect all ''tangible'' objects, which includes any currently being dragged/rotated, though may prematurely vanish if forced between two items moved to touch/overlap each other. It is possible to indirectly nudge balls by carefully moving a tangible object's surface into them (or holding them within it, e.g. the "cup"). This may be useful for rescuing temporarily stray balls (before they time-out anyway), unjamming an area with a construction-induced glut ''or'' for testing a ball-path that is not currently being fed 'naturally'. Doing so ''can'' then conceivably fulfil all the exit-gate requirements (temporarily), as it might also transiently spoil some required routing, but the manual intervention will not be possible once a 'machine' has been submit.

===Non-player items===

Ball containers at the bottom of the machine
{|
|[[File:2916_container_red.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_yellow.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_blue.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|[[File:2916_container_green.png|thumb|center|50px]]
|}

Cueball and Megan in the ''USS Buoyancy''
[[File:4d425c.png|thumb|left|150px]]
 

Pit below the ''USS Buoyancy'' (not to scale)
[[File:2916_pit_bottom.png|thumb|left|300px]]
 

=== Color routing ===
The different ball colors have different physical properties. Red balls are more bouncy than other balls, green balls are heavier, and yellow balls are lighter and slightly bouncy. The following values were extracted from the code:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Color
! Mass
! Density
! Restitution (bounciness)
! Linear damping (drag)
|-
! data-sort-key="00F" | Blue
| 0.08
| 1
| 0
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="F00" | Red
| 0.08
| 1
| 0.8
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="0F0" | Green
| 0.75
| 9.325
| 0
| 0
|-
! data-sort-key="FF0" | Yellow
| 0.024
| 0.3
| 0.6
| 2
|}

Balls also have spin, but it is subtle and hard to see because the balls have no visible texture.It can be seen, with effort, using green balls (which are heaviest). Rolling down a slope (say, two boards), green balls accumulate spin in the direction they are rolling. Let them drop off the end and then bounce off a brick such that they travel upward, but with very little sideways motion. Then "catch" the balls with a brick just past their apex, when they are moving slowly. If the ball lands on a horizontal brick, it can be seen that the ball will suddenly accelerate left or right based on the spin.

For certain combinations of inlet and outlet 'gates', it is necessary to 'cross the streams'. e.g. to direct righthand-entry balls to a lefthand-exit and vice-versa. It is possible to just construct the field to send two (or more!) sets of balls to fly across a common gap, to land on an appropriate reception area that leads to the chosen exit. But, though this is not {{w|Proton pack#Crossing the streams|completely inadvised}}, the timing of the balls cannot be guaranteed to be in sync (or, rather, anti-sync) with each other and collisions ''will'' occur, especially under the variations of delivery that might significantly alter the ballistic path across the gap. Even if the trial machine works, in isolation with a steady stream of all balls entering the field of play, once submitted it will inevitably be fed by a more chaotically-routed preceeding construction.

In order to maintain sufficient correct arrivals at exits, it may be necessary to add a method of filtering the hues.

This could just mean introducing a 'wrong hue trap' beyond any crossing point(s) that send the occasionally wrong ball back to the cross point (or let them time-out in a dead-end, relying upon few enough failures from the rest of the balls, along with all colliding balls that subsequently missed ''any'' chance of reaching an exit). Alternatively, two (or more) feeds of marbles could be fed through a deliberate 'sorter' that does a sufficiently reasonable job of separating the combined sets out towards their intended target-exits.

The various physical qualities of the balls suggest a number of methods for redirecting separate hues to separate onward journeys. This can be done by isolating a hue from every other hue, then passing on (if necessary) to a setup extracting a different one from the remainder, and perhaps also a third time. It may also be possible to merge 'arrangements' of sorting mechanics to efficiently distribute straight into three ''or even four'' onward tracks towards the desired outputs, but that is left as an exercise to the reader.


{| class="wikitable"
! style="background-color:black; color:white" | To separate !! style="background-color:lightblue" | Blue !! style="background-color:lightgreen" | Green !! style="background-color:yellow" | Yellow !! style="background-color:red" | Red
|-
! style="background-color:red" | Red
| *R/B* | '''Use 'bounce''''
The sole difference is how much balls will rebound from objects. Well managed and constrained ricochets should allow a sorting action.
| *R/G* | '''Use mass or 'bounce''''
Green balls are not affected by a fan or a black hole, making it easier to sort from other balls. On the other hand, it also means it is very hard to precisely accelerate green, since the only components able to accelerate green is the bonk and the kitten. Green, like Blue, rebounds differently to Red. Green balls are also affected by black holes much less than all other balls.
| *R/Y* | ''See Y/B''
| *R/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
|-
! style="background-color:yellow" | Yellow
| *Y/B* | '''All methods'''
Yellow, alone, exhibits high drag against any unforced motion. It is also unique in all other ways; e.g. can be levitated highest, against all other hues (though most profoundly against Green).
| *Y/G* | ''See Y/B''
| *Y/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *Y/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | ''See Y/B'' 
|-
! style="background-color:lightgreen" | Green
| *G/B* | '''Use mass'''
Green balls are not affected by a fan. There is also a not so marginal difference in density that might be exploited, such as by using black holes, which only minimally effects Green (perhaps showing an effective difference between mass of attraction and mass of inertia).
| *G/G* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *G/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | ''See Y/B'' 
| *G/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See R/G
|-
! style="background-color:lightblue" | Blue
| *B/B* style="text-align: center; background-color:black; color:white" | n/a
| *B/G* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See G/B
| *B/Y* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See Y/B
| *B/R* style="text-align: center; background-color:gray" | See R/B
|}

Even when not strictly necessary for one's own submission, once submitted into the full playing grid the player's own contribution may find itself working with less 'pure' delivered ball-streams (from an imperfectly separating feed-in contribution). It is possible that this more interactive disruption can make the new setup behave erratically or even entirely incorrectly.

It might be thought good practice (but not ''necessary'') to deliberately combine any or all inputs and do a full job of splitting them again, just in anticipation of possibly having to deal with such cross-contamination and being able to 'clean up' the onward stream(s) for the benefit of others. This would of course be particularly difficult if the isolated building-phase does not provide all four hues to 'test' against, so any speculatively added filtering would have to be added 'blind' (and only on the offchance that any anticipated incorrect balls will actually enter the arena) and without any legitimate exits to which such rejects could be shunted (therefore could accumulate, up until any 'time out' that might apply to any ball once operational as part of the combined grid).

Single-input/single-output designs might not particularly require ''any'' sorting mechanism, in theory, though the unexpected 'contamination' of the system with balls of different masses/etc could perhaps introduce malfunctioning passage from the added chaos it might succumb to.

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

:[The placeholder image shows four balls, colored red, green, yellow and blue, bouncing on top of three white blocks. Text in the center: "[visit xkcd.com to view]"]

:[In the game, colored balls fall out of rotating half-gears from the wall and/or ceiling while an opposite set of half-gears rotate with a colored triangle pointing to that set of gears. There is a button that says "view machine" button in the bottom right corner. When clicked, it takes you to a larger grid of others' machines that you can view in a larger grid. The button with a wrench is a menu that gives you tools to move the balls to the set of gears with the corresponding triangle.

:[Cueball with lab coat, intro popup]
:Cueball: Balls falling into your cell should be routed to the outputs at a steady rate.

:[Cueball with lab coat, warning popup]
:Cueball: For security reasons, balls that remain in your device for more than 30 seconds will be removed and destroyed.

:[Cueball with lab coat, submit popup]
:Cueball: Congratulations! Your contraption has passed all tests. Press [submit button] to submit it to be added to the machine!

==Trivia==
* Once again an April Fool's Day Comic came out late, as Randall did not release this on April 1st, even though April 1st did fall on a Monday, a normal release day. It first came four days later with the Friday release on April 5th. That this is to be considered an April fools' comic, in spite of the later release, was confirmed on the xkcd Facebook page.
*Randall acknowledges the people who helped him create this comic in a [[Header_text#Machine|comic-specific header text]].
**With 11 different involved apart from Randall this is by far the comic with most people involved.
*Some hidden keyboard shortcuts have been found:
** Follow balls: Ctrl + Alt/Option + B (now also accessible by using the button provided)
** Show debug overlay: Ctrl + Shift + Win/Cmd + D
*** This may particularly clash with browser functionality, e.g. Firefox's "New Bookmarks" dialogue which will need closing, though still activating the overlay graphics.
** Delete selected item: Delete (Fn + Delete on Mac)
*When Randall posted a [https://www.facebook.com/TheXKCD/posts/pfbid0Cs97awQZi1ZiaEXouAex9tXrwAS3qJV3RmAiuCq5uvZQwqZVMgDmcqJ7JU9LYodYl link to this comic] on his [https://www.facebook.com/TheXKCD Facebook feed], he directly wrote that it was a late April Fools' Day!
**MACHINE
**Happy Belated April Fool's Day!
**This thus ends any discussion of whether this should be seen as an April Fool's comic or not.
**It just came out 4 days late. This has also happened several times since [[Garden]].
[[File:2916 Machine Facebook April fools' confirmation.png]]
*The [https://github.com/xkcd/incredible source code] for the comic was released on GitHub on May 8, 2024.
**chromakode, one of the developers, also published a [https://chromakode.com/post/xkcd-machine/ blog post discussing the design and development process].

* If you put a fan interlocking with a wheel it might eventually freeze your machine.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:April fools' comics]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Knit Cap]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Squirrels]]
[[Category:Buns]]
[[Category:Cats]]

2540: TTSLTSWBD

2024-10-30T08:47:45Z

172.69.194.10: /* Explanation */ comma not needed

{{comic
| number = 2540
| date = November 10, 2021
| title = TTSLTSWBD
| image = ttsltswbd.png
| titletext = Tomorrow's sessions will be entirely devoted to sewing machine rotary hooks.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Cueball]] is standing at a lectern on a [[1661: Podium|podium (or is it a lectern?)]], addressing a large crowd. He is describing the program of some event, listing the different topics that will be covered. These appear to be random, but the caption gives the punchline: it is a conference on things that seem like they shouldn't work but do.

By "things that seem like they shouldn't work", it means things that the average person would have some intuitive sense that the function of thing was impossible, and yet ample real-world experience shows that they do, and may become a routine function that people depend upon. TTSLTSWBD in the title and the banner is the abbreviation for "Things That Seem Like They Shouldn't Work, But Do".

There are two sessions in the morning (before {{w|lunch}}) and two in the afternoon.

{{w|Organ transplantation}}, where a functioning organ is cut out of one person (usually dead, though living people can donate a single kidney, cornea (if they don't mind the accompanying vision loss), lung, uterus, part of their liver (which is unique in that it will regenerate) and, depending on one's definition of 'organ', bone marrow) and put into another person where it will now operate for their benefit. Given the very complex and delicate nature of living tissue, it's rather surprising that this could work at all. In reality, it's not a simple process, and a lot of things could go wrong, but modern medicine is advanced enough that organ transplantation is widely accepted and regularly practiced, usually functioning well enough to extend life.

{{w|Airship|Airships}}, or dirigibles, are [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Giant_Aircraft_Comparison.svg huge] rigid structures which are filled with bags of lighter-than-air gas, which causes the entire structure to float, and could carry both passengers and significant loads. The idea of such a huge vessel traveling, able to both move rapidly and float in place, would be hard to imagine if it didn't exist, yet zeppelins functioned and were a practical mode of transportation for a time. Unlike the other things mentioned, airships are largely obsolete (having lost favor due to {{w|Hindenburg_disaster|safety concerns}} and surpassed by other technologies). Airships are a [[:Category:Airships|recurring theme]] on xkcd.

Mechanical {{w|gyroscope}}s are simple devices consisting of a spinning disc mounted inside three concentric {{w|gimbal}}s as a fixture, or more often observed at work as a single spindle in a free-standing external frame that can be held or moved around by hand. The rotational inertia of the spinning disc resists change in orientation, and tends to remain in a single orientation (if free to do so) or else exert counter-intuitive forces (where directly encouraged to change its central axis). The notion that a disc can remain so steady can be counterintuitive even to those who understand the physical principles. This weirdness has been previously referenced in [[332: Gyroscopes]]. An {{w|Ring laser gyroscope|optical gyroscope}} does not mechanically resist any motion but (relying upon {{w|Sagnac effect|an effect}} originally exploited in a failed attempt to disprove {{w|Special Relativity}}) ultimately provides similar feedback about the rotation of the unit into which it is mounted.

{{w|Butterfly|Butterflies}} fly with an unusual fluttering pattern, which works in part due to the {{w|Ornithopter#Aerodynamics|notoriously complex principles of fluid dynamics}} that may look like uncontrolled fluttering but yet somehow allows the creature to land directly on specific flowerheads to feed. This is not as intuitively understandable as the flight of larger creatures such as birds.

The title text refers to {{w|Rotary hook|rotary hooks}} on sewing machines, which are a complicated (and complicated looking) mechanism whose purpose is to feed one thread in a loop around a whole spool of another thread, and are apparently counterintuitive enough that the conference feels they need a whole day to cover them.

This concept is referenced in [[2115: Plutonium]].

The conference that the comic pictures is another example of a thing that seems like it shouldn't work but does. At first glance, Cueball seems to be listing a random, disconnected list of topics that will be covered, which runs counter to the format of most conferences. It initially seems inconceivable that enough people would be interested in all of those separate topics for the conference to make a profit (from attendance fees). However, the audience is packed, demonstrating that this is not the case. This may be because many people enjoy the mind-expanding feeling of having their intuitions shattered.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball stands behind a lectern on a podium, gesturing with one hand held out, speaking to an audience. A banner hangs on the wall over the crowd with large letters on it. Illegible smaller text is written under these letters.]
:Cueball: Next we have a session on organ transplants and another on airships.
:Cueball: Then lunch, then we'll have one on gyroscopes and one on butterflies.
:Banner: TTSLTSWBD

:[Caption below panel:]
:The first annual conference on Things That Seem Like They Shouldn't Work But Do

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Airships]]

Talk:3002: RNAWorld

2024-10-23T19:50:41Z

172.69.194.10: My error... I edited the section, so of course I didn't see 'above' the section.

Is any of this specific to Disneyland or could it be Disney World, which would be more fitting for the title? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.93|172.70.43.93]] 18:43, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
:Yes, Ariel is from The Little Mermaid, which is a Disney film, Ratatouille is another Disney film, and Elsa is from Frozen and Frozen II, both of which are Disney films. I believe that RNAWorld is a play on Disneyworld. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:04, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
::I'm sure .43.93, above, understands that they are definitely Disney characters that are equally relevent to either Disney World or Disneyland (or Eurodisney, or...). It's the "World" bit that was important (and now is correctly referenced, so far as I can see). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.10|172.69.194.10]] 19:48, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3002: RNAWorld

2024-10-23T19:48:51Z

172.69.194.10: /* Disneyland or Disney World */ Removed unnecessary title, with maybe a slightly snarky response (not intended, but might read that way unless I write it *way* longer), and added the (removed?) how-to-edit comment

Is any of this specific to Disneyland or could it be Disney World, which would be more fitting for the title? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.93|172.70.43.93]] 18:43, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
:Yes, Ariel is from The Little Mermaid, which is a Disney film, Ratatouille is another Disney film, and Elsa is from Frozen and Frozen II, both of which are Disney films. I believe that RNAWorld is a play on Disneyworld. [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 19:04, 23 October 2024 (UTC)
::I'm sure .43.93, above, understands that they are definitely Disney characters that are equally relevent to either Disney World or Disneyland (or Eurodisney, or...). It's the "World" bit that was important (and now is correctly referenced, so far as I can see). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.10|172.69.194.10]] 19:48, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia

2024-10-21T08:46:24Z

172.69.194.10:

He forgot the Idaho abbreviation. [[User:Danger Kitty|Danger Kitty]] ([[User talk:Danger Kitty|talk]])
hello[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.64|172.68.54.64]] 19:49, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: And Mississippi has stolen Michigan's abbreviation! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.240|172.70.206.240]] 23:18, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

5 likes and I will make this a reality [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 20:10, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Probably this is because I'm more familiar with the map of Australia than of the US, but Melbourne seems to have moved quite a bit to the east and is now presumably in Gippsland? Oddly that's the most jarring change for me... [[User:Zoid42|Zoid42]] ([[User talk:Zoid42|talk]]) 20:26, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: Yep. {{w|Melbourne Florida}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.10|172.70.47.10]] 21:56, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
::: Yes, I guess that explains the location -- though I'd not heard of the Melbourne in Florida previously. The other jarring thing is (on the east coast at least) the climates don't match up. Florida is closer to Queensland in terms of climate (and maybe culturally), Tasmania is colder and I guess probably closer to the north-eastern US states. Plus I can't really see Adelaide as being that much like New Orleans... {{unsigned|Zoid42|21:58, 17 October 2024}}

An eight-legged gator with fangs the size of your arm, six eyes, and the ability to spin webs is truly a horrifying thought. [[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 21:07, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: At that point most of the NT would become to dangerous for people to live. [[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 23:21, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

If find it weird how tasmania is florida, as while they are in the same place, they are the least alike 2 places you could think of. [[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 22:35, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: Agreed. If cartoons and television have taught me anything, one is home to a bunch of snarling, slobbering, ravenous beasts, moving across the landscape as whirlwinds of wanton destruction. And the other is Tasmania. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.130|172.64.238.130]] 04:59, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Part of the joke is that the contiguous 48 States plus DC have nearly the same area as Australia, though the US has a larger total area. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.166|141.101.109.166]] 01:00, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

As an Australian citizen, this map hurts my soul. This is amazingly painful and I kinda love it. [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 01:36, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

:: I apparently now live in Adelaide/Louisiana (or New Orleans/South Australia). [[User:FourW|FourW]] ([[User talk:FourW|talk]]) 06:32, 17 October 2024 (UTC)FourW

Environmentalists will be upset with Randal for finally finishing the {{w|Cross Florida Barge Canal}}. And just in time for the centennial!--[[User:The Mess|The Mess]] ([[User talk:The Mess|talk]]) 07:33, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
:I was wondering if it was a sidelong comment upon the effects of {{w|Hurricane Milton}}... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.188|172.70.160.188]]

:: No, no, no. It's the Gap Chasm.[https://xanth.fandom.com/wiki/Gap_Chasm] {{unsigned ip|172.71.183.173|17:26, 17 October 2024}}

The distortion of Washington State, where I live, is painful, but funny. Can't wait for comic 3000! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.58|172.71.146.58]] 16:00, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

:I know, it's probably going to be sometime on monday- i saw a website who said they would rank all 3000 comics then! [[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 09:44, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

Being about to shift to the right at an election next weekend, it is very prescient (and scary) that SE Queensland, where I live, is in North Carolina. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.212|172.68.64.212]] 18:53, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

That's great! As a Sydney resident this cartoon gave me an earworm. I'll be singing it all day; "South Carolina On My Mind". [[User:Ozhamada|Ozhamada]] ([[User talk:Ozhamada|talk]]) 22:18, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Stralia might not have anything directly equivalent to Hawaii and Alaska (significantly distant non-contiguous states), but it does have an island state (Tasmania) as well as several non-state island territories, and a mahoosive chunk of Antarctica that might have done in place of Alaska.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.35|172.70.90.35]] 09:05, 18 October 2024 (UTC)
:Well, Tasmsnia's already there, you'll note, which is there for that broken-Florida-like bit. Torres Straight islands and wider-afield territories/semi-adopted aren't really as handy replacements for the non-contiguous bits of the US, though. I can see why it was only taken as far as it was, for parody purposes. Diminishing returns on anything further. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.11|172.69.194.11]] 15:18, 18 October 2024 (UTC)
::New Guinea looks like Alaska, while Australia also has some small islands that may resemble Hawaii. [[User:ConscriptGlossary|ConscriptGlossary]] ([[User talk:ConscriptGlossary|talk]]) 06:40, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Hmmm. Not convinced that the description's assertion that "Florida would be cold" if its weather were analogous to the south of Australia was written be someone who has been to Australia. Granted, the red centre will cook you alive, and the cold water comes out of the taps hot in NT...but still. SA is hardly "cold". [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 22:32, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

Someone has edited (changed from the original) the paragraph about Australia's north being closer to the equator than its south in a way which makes no sense. The climate of Australia is created by a number of factors, many of them which would still be true even if the land formations of the USA replaced the land formations which exist in reality in the USA. Anything closer to the equator is going to be hotter than those things closer to the antarctic. The ocean currents would also remain the same. It is true that the land formations of the USA do affect its climate and these would have some affect if those formations replaced Australia's but the path of the Sun over that part of the globe and the ocean currents would affect the climate in a way different from what is suggested by the edited content. --00:51, 20 October 2024 (UTC)[[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.172|172.70.254.172]]

Anyone else see a *very* similar map on social media recently? I think it might've been one of those "bad maps" X accounts that posted one that's almost identical but with different labeling a couple days ago, clearly the inspiration for Randall. Probably worth mentioning that in the explanation somewhere. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 22:03, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

I have been referencing this map for years, to try to explain how isolated Perth is. I say: imagine San Francisco is the only city on the west coast, and the edge of the state runs south from the Montana/Dakotas border. And the next nearest city is Houston. Although I guess I need to change that to SLO and New Orleans. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.0.190|172.68.0.190]] 01:06, 18 October 2024 (UTC)
: Or, to put it another way, Perth is closer to the capital cities of Indonesia and Timor Leste than it is to its own national capital, and only barely closer to Brisbane, Queensland than it is to Singapore (whole different continent). [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 04:26, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

As a Canberrian I am a little offeneded ACT didn't deserve it's own area on the map. It doesn't deserve a state, because it isn't one. We are important though! We have an airport! Oh and something something parliament. Urban ACT is weirdly small and I challenge anyone to live there and never cross into NSW by accident. Oh and no label for Tassie. {{unsigned ip|172.68.126.134|22:02, 19 October 2024}}
:The same holds true for Maryland and Washington DC (Although DC's airports are in Virginia) [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 03:03, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Do the same mountain ranges, rivers, and bodies of water that define USA state boundaries exist in The United Stralia? If not, a hell of a lot of surveyors were blind, stinking drunk when they were working. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 03:03, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

==Request: Map Merge/Morph==
Could someone please post a simple map outline of the contiguous US and of Australia, and then try to merge / morph the two maps together? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.88|172.70.47.88]] 17:24, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
:could you please elaborate on how you want to merge these two maps? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:22, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
: Aren't you just asking us to do exactly what Randall did this week? But if you want to see the two outlines ''without'' morphing, then you might want to try [https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!OTc1MjU4Mw.MzU2MjU4Mg*MTY4MjQ1Mg(MjA5NTY4NjY~!AU*MA.MTgwMDAwMDA)Ng~!CONTIGUOUS_US*MTUzNTQwOTE.ODM0ODczOA(MTk0)Nw this superposition of Australia and US48 from thetruesize.com]. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 04:15, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:: Me again. Randall has artistic license. I have seen maps here where his version is different from the way a cartographer would apply the same techniques. [[2999]]: Exterior Kansas is an example. Scroll down through the article to see what a true Azimuthal Projection with an Exterior Kansas would look like. I wonder how much 2999 resembles a 'true' [A|]US[A|] map merge. (Is "[A|]US[A|]" the best representation for this?) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.101|172.71.98.101]] 16:25, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia

2024-10-21T08:45:38Z

172.69.194.10: Feckin headers

He forgot the Idaho abbreviation. [[User:Danger Kitty|Danger Kitty]] ([[User talk:Danger Kitty|talk]])
hello[[Special:Contributions/172.68.54.64|172.68.54.64]] 19:49, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: And Mississippi has stolen Michigan's abbreviation! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.240|172.70.206.240]] 23:18, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

5 likes and I will make this a reality [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 20:10, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Probably this is because I'm more familiar with the map of Australia than of the US, but Melbourne seems to have moved quite a bit to the east and is now presumably in Gippsland? Oddly that's the most jarring change for me... [[User:Zoid42|Zoid42]] ([[User talk:Zoid42|talk]]) 20:26, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: Yep. {{w|Melbourne Florida}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.10|172.70.47.10]] 21:56, 16 October 2024 (UTC)
::: Yes, I guess that explains the location -- though I'd not heard of the Melbourne in Florida previously. The other jarring thing is (on the east coast at least) the climates don't match up. Florida is closer to Queensland in terms of climate (and maybe culturally), Tasmania is colder and I guess probably closer to the north-eastern US states. Plus I can't really see Adelaide as being that much like New Orleans... {{unsigned|Zoid42|21:58, 17 October 2024}}

An eight-legged gator with fangs the size of your arm, six eyes, and the ability to spin webs is truly a horrifying thought. [[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 21:07, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: At that point most of the NT would become to dangerous for people to live. [[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 23:21, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

If find it weird how tasmania is florida, as while they are in the same place, they are the least alike 2 places you could think of. [[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 22:35, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

:: Agreed. If cartoons and television have taught me anything, one is home to a bunch of snarling, slobbering, ravenous beasts, moving across the landscape as whirlwinds of wanton destruction. And the other is Tasmania. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.130|172.64.238.130]] 04:59, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Part of the joke is that the contiguous 48 States plus DC have nearly the same area as Australia, though the US has a larger total area. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.109.166|141.101.109.166]] 01:00, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

As an Australian citizen, this map hurts my soul. This is amazingly painful and I kinda love it. [[User:OmniDoom|OmniDoom]] ([[User talk:OmniDoom|talk]]) 01:36, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

:: I apparently now live in Adelaide/Louisiana (or New Orleans/South Australia). [[User:FourW|FourW]] ([[User talk:FourW|talk]]) 06:32, 17 October 2024 (UTC)FourW

Environmentalists will be upset with Randal for finally finishing the {{w|Cross Florida Barge Canal}}. And just in time for the centennial!--[[User:The Mess|The Mess]] ([[User talk:The Mess|talk]]) 07:33, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
:I was wondering if it was a sidelong comment upon the effects of {{w|Hurricane Milton}}... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.188|172.70.160.188]]

:: No, no, no. It's the Gap Chasm.[https://xanth.fandom.com/wiki/Gap_Chasm] {{unsigned ip|172.71.183.173|17:26, 17 October 2024}}

The distortion of Washington State, where I live, is painful, but funny. Can't wait for comic 3000! [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.58|172.71.146.58]] 16:00, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

:I know, it's probably going to be sometime on monday- i saw a website who said they would rank all 3000 comics then! [[User:SomeRandomNerd|SomeRandomNerd]] ([[User talk:SomeRandomNerd|talk]]) 09:44, 18 October 2024 (UTC)

Being about to shift to the right at an election next weekend, it is very prescient (and scary) that SE Queensland, where I live, is in North Carolina. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.64.212|172.68.64.212]] 18:53, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

That's great! As a Sydney resident this cartoon gave me an earworm. I'll be singing it all day; "South Carolina On My Mind". [[User:Ozhamada|Ozhamada]] ([[User talk:Ozhamada|talk]]) 22:18, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Stralia might not have anything directly equivalent to Hawaii and Alaska (significantly distant non-contiguous states), but it does have an island state (Tasmania) as well as several non-state island territories, and a mahoosive chunk of Antarctica that might have done in place of Alaska.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.35|172.70.90.35]] 09:05, 18 October 2024 (UTC)
:Well, Tasmsnia's already there, you'll note, which is there for that broken-Florida-like bit. Torres Straight islands and wider-afield territories/semi-adopted aren't really as handy replacements for the non-contiguous bits of the US, though. I can see why it was only taken as far as it was, for parody purposes. Diminishing returns on anything further. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.11|172.69.194.11]] 15:18, 18 October 2024 (UTC)
Hmmm. Not convinced that the description's assertion that "Florida would be cold" if its weather were analogous to the south of Australia was written be someone who has been to Australia. Granted, the red centre will cook you alive, and the cold water comes out of the taps hot in NT...but still. SA is hardly "cold". [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 22:32, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
::New Guinea looks like Alaska, while Australia also has some small islands that may resemble Hawaii. [[User:ConscriptGlossary|ConscriptGlossary]] ([[User talk:ConscriptGlossary|talk]]) 06:40, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Someone has edited (changed from the original) the paragraph about Australia's north being closer to the equator than its south in a way which makes no sense. The climate of Australia is created by a number of factors, many of them which would still be true even if the land formations of the USA replaced the land formations which exist in reality in the USA. Anything closer to the equator is going to be hotter than those things closer to the antarctic. The ocean currents would also remain the same. It is true that the land formations of the USA do affect its climate and these would have some affect if those formations replaced Australia's but the path of the Sun over that part of the globe and the ocean currents would affect the climate in a way different from what is suggested by the edited content. --00:51, 20 October 2024 (UTC)[[Special:Contributions/172.70.254.172|172.70.254.172]]

Anyone else see a *very* similar map on social media recently? I think it might've been one of those "bad maps" X accounts that posted one that's almost identical but with different labeling a couple days ago, clearly the inspiration for Randall. Probably worth mentioning that in the explanation somewhere. [[User:PotatoGod|PotatoGod]] ([[User talk:PotatoGod|talk]]) 22:03, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

I have been referencing this map for years, to try to explain how isolated Perth is. I say: imagine San Francisco is the only city on the west coast, and the edge of the state runs south from the Montana/Dakotas border. And the next nearest city is Houston. Although I guess I need to change that to SLO and New Orleans. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.0.190|172.68.0.190]] 01:06, 18 October 2024 (UTC)
: Or, to put it another way, Perth is closer to the capital cities of Indonesia and Timor Leste than it is to its own national capital, and only barely closer to Brisbane, Queensland than it is to Singapore (whole different continent). [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 04:26, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

As a Canberrian I am a little offeneded ACT didn't deserve it's own area on the map. It doesn't deserve a state, because it isn't one. We are important though! We have an airport! Oh and something something parliament. Urban ACT is weirdly small and I challenge anyone to live there and never cross into NSW by accident. Oh and no label for Tassie. {{unsigned ip|172.68.126.134|22:02, 19 October 2024}}
:The same holds true for Maryland and Washington DC (Although DC's airports are in Virginia) [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 03:03, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

Do the same mountain ranges, rivers, and bodies of water that define USA state boundaries exist in The United Stralia? If not, a hell of a lot of surveyors were blind, stinking drunk when they were working. [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 03:03, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

==Request: Map Merge/Morph==
Could someone please post a simple map outline of the contiguous US and of Australia, and then try to merge / morph the two maps together? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.47.88|172.70.47.88]] 17:24, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
:could you please elaborate on how you want to merge these two maps? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 18:22, 17 October 2024 (UTC)
: Aren't you just asking us to do exactly what Randall did this week? But if you want to see the two outlines ''without'' morphing, then you might want to try [https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!OTc1MjU4Mw.MzU2MjU4Mg*MTY4MjQ1Mg(MjA5NTY4NjY~!AU*MA.MTgwMDAwMDA)Ng~!CONTIGUOUS_US*MTUzNTQwOTE.ODM0ODczOA(MTk0)Nw this superposition of Australia and US48 from thetruesize.com]. [[User:Paddles|Paddles]] ([[User talk:Paddles|talk]]) 04:15, 19 October 2024 (UTC)
:: Me again. Randall has artistic license. I have seen maps here where his version is different from the way a cartographer would apply the same techniques. [[2999]]: Exterior Kansas is an example. Scroll down through the article to see what a true Azimuthal Projection with an Exterior Kansas would look like. I wonder how much 2999 resembles a 'true' [A|]US[A|] map merge. (Is "[A|]US[A|]" the best representation for this?) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.98.101|172.71.98.101]] 16:25, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

3000: Experimental Astrophysics

2024-10-19T06:18:52Z

172.69.194.10: /* Explanation */ Reinserting 'lost' narrative low, and (different, minor) tweaks.

{{comic
| number = 3000
| date = October 18, 2024
| title = Experimental Astrophysics
| image = experimental_astrophysics_2x.png
| imagesize = 317x490px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Our experiment will be expensive, but we believe it will produce important spin-offs, especially if we manage to hit the sun from the right angle.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SOLAR FLARE WITH ABNORMAL PULSAR READINGS - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A {{w|Thorne–Żytkow object}} is an object theorized by Kip Thorne and Anna Żytkow, which is a red giant or red supergiant with a neutron star at its core. There have been no confirmed sightings, but HV2112 in the small Magellican cloud (SMC) and HV 11417 are both strong candidates.

Normally, astrophysical science is an observational discipline, in which the existing situation is understood from afar. It would not be unusual to seek funding for telescope time, or even an entirely new telescope, in order to make such investigations possible. The scene in the comic itself might be the logical conclusion of that kind of proposal/{{w|elevator pitch}}, complete with a diagram of how such an object may form, but the title of the comic (made sxplicit by the title text) suggests that this is intended to be a 'practical' experiment to induce a KŻO into existence by actually sending a neutron star into our own Sun.

Cueball is complaining that no one is willing to fund shooting a neutron star into the Sun to create the said {{w|Thorne–Żytkow object}} for direct observation. This is impractical for plenty of reasons.{{Citation needed}} First, you would need to find a neutron star and bring it here, which requires ridiculous amounts of energy, mass and precision. Secondly, having a neutron star anywhere near the Sun would most likely destroy the solar system as a whole.{{Citation needed}} The Sun would also have to turn into a red giant for this, which (normally) takes billions of years and will [[1606|ruin the weather]].

A spin-off usually means something additional that was not originally planned. The title text in this comic is a two-layer joke on the phrase "spin-off", meaning that creating a {{w|Thorne–Żytkow object}} will likely produce many unintended effects, and will also cause the Sun as well as the solar system to start rotating abnormally due to the existence of a neutron star rotating hundreds of times a second and its intense gravity.

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

:[Cueball is standing on a circular stage in front of a poster. The poster shows two stars, one much larger than the other. The smaller star has an arrow pointing to it to the center of the large star.]
:Cueball: A Thorne-Żytkow object is a hypothesized nested star—a red giant with a neutron star inside it.
:Cueball: So far, no TŻOs Have been definitively observed, but your grant could help us change that.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:We're struggling to get funding for our project to slingshot a neutron star into the sun.:

{{comic discussion}}

2992: UK Coal

2024-10-02T10:11:13Z

172.69.194.10: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2992
| date = September 30, 2024
| title = UK Coal
| image = uk_coal_2x.png
| imagesize = 532x232px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The Watership Down rabbits removed an additional 0.1 nanometers constructing their warren, although that was mostly soil. British rabbits have historically mined very little coal; the sole rabbit-run coal plant was shut down in the 1990s.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT RUNNING ON 3 INCHES OF THE UK - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic uses dimensional analysis to describe the end of coal-powered energy production in the United Kingdom, in reference to the [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y35qz73n8o shutting down of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant] in central England on Monday, September 30, 2024. This event signified the closure of the last coal-fired power plant in the UK. This is an important milestone in global energy use, because the United Kingdom was at the forefront of the {{w|Industrial Revolution}}, which began an era of large-scale coal extraction to fuel the world's industries. Over the course of the past several decades, coal has increasingly fallen out of favor, with natural gas becoming a more viable power source, and an increasing percentage of energy needs being met without the use of fossil fuels (from sources such as nuclear, hydro, solar and wind power). The fact that the UK has now fully transitioned away from the use of coal as a major energy source marks a major shift in how industrialized nations are powered.

UK coal ''production'' has also been in decline significantly since {{w|1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike|the politically enforced decline in the 1980s}}, and the proposed opening of the new {{w|Woodhouse Colliery}} in Cumbria [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62533nyvzwo seems to have been stopped], leaving just the [https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coal-mining-production-and-manpower-returns-statistics-2023/coal-mining-production-and-manpower-returns-received-by-the-coal-authority-january-to-march-2023 remnants of the coal-mining industry] active. There remain uses for coal, both locally obtained and imported, but the conversion away from coal [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70zxjldqnxo in various industries] marks a possible soft-end to the British era which started with the {{w|Industrial Revolution}}.

The equation shown in the comic determines how much coal was mined in the UK with respect to the surface area of the region, and calculates that this represents the removal of an average of about 8.0 cm (in imperial units, 3.2 inches) across the whole of the United Kingdom. The accompanying picture implies that this has actually been taken in an even layer across the surface area of the country, resulting in it now being 3 inches lower. In reality, coal is usually extracted from concentrations in specific locations, leaving other areas generally unaffected. Also while some of it has been {{w|Open-pit_mining| open-cast mined}}, leaving visible quarrying scars (that may have been partially relandscaped), much of it has been mined sub-surface, with minimal effect on the surface itself, except where it may cause {{w|Flash (lake)|localized subsidence}}, sometimes of significant depth.

''UK DESNZ'', referenced in the comic, is the United Kingdom's {{w|Department for Energy Security and Net Zero}}, the source for the statistic on UK total coal production from 1853 to present; see DESNZ's historical statistics of coal production [https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/historical-coal-data-coal-production-availability-and-consumption here].

Since [[Randall]] is warning about [[:Category:Climate change|climate change]] in several of his comics, he likely sees this as an important step away from the use of fossil fuel.

The comic’s title text adds a similar, but even more ludicrous, metric for earth excavated for a rabbit warren. The volume of earth described, 0.1 nm × 240,000 km2, is equal to 24 m3. The text refers to {{w|Watership Down}}, a 1972 novel about a group of English rabbits. (A sole sequel to Watership Down, {{w|Tales from Watership Down}}, was published in 1996.) The text also refers to a former rabbit-run coal plant in the UK and claims that it was shut down in the 1990s. No actual {{w|Run, Rabbit, Run|rabbit-run}} coal plants have ever been documented.

==Transcript==
:[The following formula is shown (with the divisors below a horizontal line in the comic, rather than inside square brackets):]
:UK total coal production (1853-present, ''UK DESNZ'') / [(coal seam density) × (UK land area)] = 25 billion tonnes / [1.3kg/L × 240,000km²] ≈ 3 inches
:[Cueball is standing to the right of the formula, upon a dotted line representing the prior ground level. Two arrows indicate that the dotted line is 3 inches above the solid line that is the current ground level. One arrow goes from the end of the word inches to the dotted line the other is short and goes up from below pointing at the solid line.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:The UK shut down their last coal power plant today, which means that over the course of the industrial revolution, they dug up and burned an average of 3 inches of their country.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Climate change]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Animals]]

Talk:2933: Elementary Physics Paths

2024-05-20T12:00:27Z

172.69.194.10:

First comment, heh. [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 20:27, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
:See also [[1258: First]]. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.7|162.158.159.7]] 23:21, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
::Let me have my first "first" moment, man. [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 12:46, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Could this be the last first? Or just the first of the last firsts. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:16, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

I assume the cosmology comment from the alt text is related to the speculative nature of dark matter and dark energy, but I am too ignorant of of cosmology to know if there is something more specific being referenced.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.23.203|172.69.23.203]] 22:27, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
:I think its more jokinly questioning the knowlege of the cosmos, saying "space is big, so are we 100% that EVERYTHING is made of these complicated little things, or just the parts we can see?" [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 00:26, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

::I thought it was a reference to the incompatibility of the leading cosmological theory (Relativity) with Quantum theory. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.210.117|172.68.210.117]] 02:49, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

Am I the only one where it seems like the explanation was written by an AI? It seems like obvious things are left out, like the presence of dark matter in astronomy, or saying “quantum physics” instead of “quantum field theory”. It’s like in some areas it could be convincingly explaining without knowing, a little like chatgpt does. However, I’m thinking a lot of the explanations are like that and I’ve probably participated in it myself … [[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.215|172.68.23.215]] 00:46, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
:The reason we're using "Quantum Theory" (at least my reason) is because thats what the comic used [[User:Apollo11|Apollo11]] ([[User talk:Apollo11|talk]]) 00:59, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
:The initial explanations are indeed generated using automation, so that each day's initial visitors aren't greeted by no explanation at all; visitors with a ''better'' explanation, should feel welcome to contribute. Visitors should not be ''overwriting'' existing explanations with autogenerated content, though; that's a mistake.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:05, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
::I believe the point was that 'AI' was used (with or without generous human tweaking to the input to the 'algorithm' and/or post-output selectivity and editing), and this is different from the 'automation' of TheusafBOT/etc which is just a fairly limited (and entirely hand-crafted) "poll, scrape, limited-parse and post" process. As well as going the 'lazy' way of disregarding (or excessively diluting) the initial work in favour of a (mostly?) uncritical adoption of what a hallucination-vulnerable black box process spews out after being trained to just "make something that ''look like'' what a human might write" without every any hope of applying true understanding to the process. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.191|162.158.38.191]] 18:56, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
:I was reading it, and as 172.68.23.215 said, it looks like Kyrodes put in multiple overriding edits which directly erased the original explaination in lieu of a ChatGPT version (analysis courtesy of gptzero). I'd personally prefer there being more human-made stuff here, and some of the writing isn't exactly coherent... But this isn't up to me to decide, eh? [[User:Eelitee|Eelitee]] ([[User talk:Eelitee|talk]]) 21:25, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

According to the Copenhagen Interpretation, it's not determined whether a physicist studies Condensed Matter or Quantum Field Theory until we open his box. [[User:Doctorhook|Doctorhook]] ([[User talk:Doctorhook|talk]]) 02:45, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
: According to the Communist Russia Interpretation, the Universe studies physicists.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.172|172.71.178.172]] 08:22, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

you guys really need to solve your chatgpt problem
--[[Special:Contributions/172.70.143.28|172.70.143.28]] 03:59, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

Schrodinger's 'cat box thought experiment' is more complex than even Schrodinger realised, since for the duration of the experiment the cat assumes EVERY possible quantum state, including 'not actually in the box' and 'suddenly not being a cat any more'.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.231|172.70.91.231]] 05:09, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
:At the conclusion of this test, there will be cake.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 17:01, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

Schrodinger did not argue against QM; he argued against a certain interpretation of it. Specifically, he argued that QM does not tell us how things really are; at most, it tells us what we can detect about those things. His cat in a box idea aims to make clear that we do not know what happens between observations and that using QM to describe this leads to nonsense.
[[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.13|172.70.46.13]] 06:44, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
:I removed the "further examples" and the mentioning of Schrödinger. Interesting for sure, but not relevant for the explanation of the comic. Schrödinger isn't even mentioned in the comic... [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:26, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
::Specifically, he used the cat in a box analogy to show why we can (with an ever-increasing confidence) say that the Copenhagen interpretation is baloney. [[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:59, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Shut up and explain.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.17|172.70.162.17]] 08:04, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

It feels like Randall has gone down the same Wikipedia rabbit hole that I have (spurred on by another comic). The universe is full of extremely weird things on every level. Even the Copenhagen Interpretation of QM isn't actually one interpretation. Everyone has different ideas because it's all so weird. I remember my physics teacher telling me about the time before QM was discovered when it seemed like we had figured out most of physics and now it seems like we barely know anything. [[User:Brycemw|Brycemw]] ([[User talk:Brycemw|talk]]) 13:31, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

It seems like there should be a third branch for chemistry, leading to biology. Just putting a bunch of atoms together gives a bunch of new, unrelated properties in the new molecules compared to their constituent atoms. When you look at organic chemistry, especially the self-perpetuating version (life), then the level of complexity is ''huge''. {unsigned|Nutster|16:04, 17 May 2024}}

Yesterday I was trying to read a journal article that was trying to model the way water moves through a soil column and has some of its impurities removed. They were using a system of 12 simultaneous partial differential equations, had dramatically run out of letters for naming variables, constants, and functions, and were nesting equations three deep to try to make the PDEs readable. And this was AFTER they made a large number of simplifying assumptions. To top it off, the results aren't even perfectly accurate for already highly purified water running through a column in a super controlled environment. Reality is complicated, y'all.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.2.100|172.68.2.100]] 14:56, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

Should we be concerned that reality is complicated only to those with too much knowledge (like ourselves, natch) ?
Reality is simple enough to the simple of mind, i.e. writers of school books, teachers relying on those, and those who believe what teachers say. Understanding of reality by the masses (99.9%, maybe more) has not improved any since the Middle Ages, it's faith and trust in the authority of the speaker. Even when "alternate," more "up to date" explanations come around, like string theory, even black holes, it tends to sound not much different from Daniken and his visitors from space, is most often presented as clickbait, etc. [[User:Yamaplos|Yamaplos]] ([[User talk:Yamaplos|talk]]) 01:06, 19 May 2024 (UTC)

Cause and effect don't exist. Even 100% correlation does not have to equal causation. If we combine this theory with Murphy's law and Schrodinger's cat, the universe is destroyed an infinite number of times. Once because every went wrong with the cat in the box but that cataclysm was not caused by the cat it only correlated it so there is no cause for the destruction therefore the universe is destroyed again and again by violating causality by being destroyed in the first place. {{unsigned ip|172.71.30.29|03:04, 19 May 2024}}

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that <nowiki>==COSMOLOGY==</nowiki> is wiki syntax for a section title...--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.129.35|162.158.129.35]] 09:02, 20 May 2024 (UTC)
:Well, it is, but I think it's just legitimate ASCII-art version of the comic arrow (with the ">" appended), so probably not intended to be wikimarkup-like. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.10|172.69.194.10]] 12:00, 20 May 2024 (UTC)