explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3092: Baker's Units

2025-05-27T08:27:53Z

172.69.43.183: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3092
| date = May 21, 2025
| title = Baker's Units
| image = bakers_units_2x.png
| imagesize = 349x310px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 169 is a baker's gross.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by baker's bot. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A '{{w|Dozen#Baker's dozen|baker's dozen}}' is an expression referring to the number 13, as opposed to the normal 'dozen', meaning 12. This stems from a tradition in medieval times whereby salespeople would include 13 items when selling a 'dozen'. This was due to them having to pay penalties (in some regions, {{w|Ducking stool|draconian}} ones) when customers were [https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/obscure-medieval-laws/ sold one item short], which could easily be done unintentionally with items numbering in the dozens. To avoid the customer complaints and the penalty, bakers added a safety margin that allowed them to still serve a dozen in a hurry: If a count had incorrectly inflated the assumed number, the baker may still have given out twelve items; if no miscount (or an undercount) had happened, the baker would have given away only a token extra item (or two), and to someone who was probably a good enough customer to make it a worthwhile business practice.

[[Randall]] proceeds to apply this principle to other things involving the number 12. A reader might anticipate this means simply applying a count of 13 of a thing, or adding one to the most prominent quantity. But it slowly becomes clear that, instead, Randall finds something about the thing that consists of 12 units, changes that to 13, and demonstrates the logical consequence.

The results gradually gradually become more unexpected and silly:
* Imperial feet are 12 inches long; a 'baker's foot' would be 13 inches long.
* Noon is 12 o'clock (also 12:00 in {{w|24-hour clock}} notation); 'baker's noon' would be 1 o'clock PM (13:00 in 24-hour notation). Local noon has often been a vital piece of information for those who need to know when the working daylight is half-way through, or specifically for noting the {{w|Solar time|local solar maximum}} for astronomical or navigation purposes, whilst 1 PM does not usually merit any note beyond that of any other hour — except during daylight saving time, when baker's noon may be closer to local noon than 12 o'clock.
* A {{w|dodecahedron}} is a solid shape having 12 faces ("dodeca" = "twelve"). The best-known kind is the regular dodecahedron, a {{w|Platonic solid}} whose faces are regular pentagons (the shape that most {{w|Dice#Polyhedral dice|d12}}s take the form of), but there are others such as the {{w|rhombic dodecahedron}} and {{w|Pyritohedron#Pyritohedron|pyritohedron}}. A 'baker's dodecahedron' would have thirteen faces, making it, in fact, a tridecahedron, typically a form with some combination of triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons and/or hexagons. One way of forming a tridecahedron is to truncate one vertex of a dodecahedron, essentially "replacing" it with an additional small face. Tridecahedrons are not Platonic solids, and their use in dice-based games (though not impossible) would result in an unbalanced skew of possibilities, as well as one extra result (perhaps zero or thirteen) that a gaming system might not be designed to anticipate.
* Under the {{w|Gregorian calendar}}, years have 12 months and, in most Western traditions, New Year's Eve is celebrated on the last day of the 12th of these. Therefore a baker would celebrate 'baker's New Year's Eve' at the end of an extra 13th month, on January 31 (possibly implying that their New Year would shift by one month each year, relative to everyone else's calendars). There are proposed calendars that have 13 months in every year, such as the {{w|International Fixed Calendar}}.
* In {{w|12 equal temperament|12-tone music systems}}, octaves contain 12 half-steps, also known as semitones. (A half-step is the distance between adjacent notes, such as F and F#.) A 'baker’s octave' would have 13 semitones, corresponding to a minor ninth, and would cause problems in musical composition as baker's octaves are dissonant instead of consonant. However, Randall's musical notation actually shows a ''major'' ninth, with ''fourteen'' semitones. If he wanted thirteen semitones, Randall could have used D♭ instead of D, or drawn a bass clef instead of a treble clef. Another way would have been to shift two notes up to make the pair E and F, or one note down to make it B and C, as these pairs are actually 13 semitones apart. Alternatively, he could keep the difference between the octave notes the same, but have 12 new notes subdividing them, requiring a complete overhaul of notation.
* Trial juries in the Anglo-Saxon law tradition ({{w|Common Law}}) consist of 12 peers. The 'baker’s jury' would have 13 peers. This might be considered to make little practical difference, though it does mean that in situations where a jury is allowed to present a majority verdict instead of requiring unanimity, the odd number of jurors would prevent exact ties. (Note that {{w|Trial by jury in Scotland|Scottish juries}}, start with the expectation of there being 15 jurors, and may well end up reduced to 13 or even 12.)
* The {{w|Flag of Europe}} has 12 stars forming a circle (as a symbol of harmony); unlike in the US flag, the stars do not represent member states. The flag was first adopted by the Council of Europe in 1955, when it already had 13 members; today there are over 40. The European Communities adopted the Flag of Europe in 1986 before the EC turned into the European Union, which currently 27 member states. A 13th star could potentially be added to make a 'baker's EU flag' without major damage to the symbol. In the United States, 13 stars in a circle is associated with the {{w|Betsy Ross flag}}, the first U.S. flag, in which each star represented a state.
* Magnesium is element number 12, with 12 protons. Aluminum is element number 13 and is a very different material.{{Citation needed}} 'Baker's magnesium' actually has more applications than standard magnesium in baking such as {{w|sodium aluminium phosphate}}, used in some baking powders, and {{w|aluminum foil}} (often called tinfoil), sometimes used to protect pans or baked goods during baking, but it does not have as much nutritional value.
* In the title text, 144 (12x12) is a gross. Thus, 169 (13x13) would be a 'baker's gross', an addition of not just one but 25 units.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove too soon.}}
:Baker's units
:[A formation comprising 13 items] - Baker's dozen
:[A ruler divided into 13 parts] - Baker's foot
:1:00 PM - Baker's noon
:[A polyhedron with 13 faces] - Baker's dodecahedron
:January 31st - Baker's New Year's Eve
:[Two notes on a staff 14 half-steps apart] - Baker's octave
:[13 people standing in a row] - Baker's jury
:[A flag with 13 stars forming a circle] - Baker's EU flag
:Aluminum - Baker's magnesium

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Math]]

3092: Baker's Units

2025-05-23T10:02:48Z

172.69.43.183: fix misuse of "compris[e|ing]"

{{comic
| number = 3092
| date = May 21, 2025
| title = Baker's Units
| image = bakers_units_2x.png
| imagesize = 349x310px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 169 is a baker's gross.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by baker's bot. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A '{{w|Dozen#Baker's_dozen|baker's dozen}}' is an expression referring to the number 13, as opposed to the normal 'dozen', meaning 12. This stems from a tradition in medieval times whereby salespeople would include 13 items when selling a 'dozen'. This was due to them having to pay penalties (in some regions, {{w|Ducking_stool|draconian}} ones) when customers were sold one item short, or not enough weight{{citation needed|more like DUBIOUS}}. To avoid the customer complaints and the penalty, bakers added a safety margin that allowed them to still serve a dozen in a hurry: If a miscount happened the baker would have given out twelve rolls just as ordered; if no miscount happened the baker would just be short of one inexpensive item.

[[Randall]] proceeds to apply this principle to other things involving the number 12. A reader might anticipate this means simply applying a count of 13 of a thing, or adding one to the most prominent quantity. But it slowly becomes clear that, instead, Randall finds something about the thing that consists of 12 units, changes that to 13, and demonstrates the logical consequence.

The results gradually become more unexpected and silly:
* Imperial feet are 12 inches long; a 'baker's foot' would be 13 inches long.
* Noon is 12 o'clock (also 12:00 in {{w|24-hour clock}} notation); 'baker's noon' would be 1 o'clock PM (13:00 in 24-hour notation). Local noon has often been a vital piece of information for those who need to know when the working daylight is half-way through, or specifically for noting the {{w|Solar time|local solar maximum}} for astronomical or navigation purposes (though the original "noon" {{w|Noon#Etymology|used to be}} several hours later), whilst 1PM does not usually merit any notable marker beyond those of any other "o'clock"—except during daylight savings time, when Baker's noon may be closer to local noon than 12 o'clock. The inverted case to this is when it becomes a convenient time to convey a {{w|Time ball|post-noon signal}}, perhaps having observed and subsequently verified solar-noon exactly an hour earlier.
* A {{w|dodecahedron}} is a solid shape having 12 faces ("dodeca" = "twelve"). The best-known kind is the regular dodecahedron, a {{w|Platonic solid}} whose faces are regular pentagons (the shape that most {{w|Dice#Polyhedral dice|d12}}s take the form of), but there are others such as the {{w|rhombic dodecahedron}} and {{w|Pyritohedron#Pyritohedron|pyritohedron}}. A 'baker's dodecahedron' would have thirteen faces, making it, in fact, a tridecahedron, typically a form with some combination of triangles, squares (or other 4-sided shapes), pentagons, and/or hexagons. One way of forming a tridecahedron is to truncate one vertex of a dodecahedron, essentially "replacing" it with an additional small face. Tridecahedrons are not Platonic solids, and their use in dice-based games (though not impossible) would result in an unbalanced skew of possibilities, as well as one extra result (perhaps zero or thirteen) that a gaming system might not be designed to anticipate. However, being a Platonic solid is sufficient but not necessary for fairness. There are other shapes that can still be fair if designed carefully.
*Under the Gregorian calendar, years have 12 months and, in most western traditions, New Year's Eve is celebrated on the last day of the 12th of these. Therefore a baker would celebrate 'baker's New Year's Eve' at the end of an extra 13th month, on January 31 (possibly implying that their New Year would shift by one month each year, relative to everyone else's calendars). Randall was apparently unaware that both lunar calendars and the planet Mars do in fact have a 13th month known as {{w|Undecember}} or Smarch.
* Octaves contain 12 half-steps (a half-step is the distance between adjacent notes, such as F and F#). A 'baker’s octave' would have 13 half-steps (corresponding to a minor ninth) and cause problems in musical composition, as octaves (of the baker’s variety) would be dissonant, instead of being consonant. However, Randall's musical notation actually shows a ''major'' ninth, with ''fourteen'' half-steps. If he wanted thirteen half-steps, Randall could have used D♭ instead of D, or drawn a bass clef instead of a treble clef.
* Trial juries in the Anglo-Saxon law tradition ({{w|Common Law}}) consist of 12 peers. The 'baker’s jury' would have 13 peers. This might be considered to make little practical difference, though it does mean that (in situations where a jury is allowed to present a majority verdict instead of requiring unanimity), the odd number of jurors would prevent exact ties. (Note that {{w|Trial by jury in Scotland|Scottish juries}}, in particular, start with the expectation of there being 15 jurors, and may well end up reduced to 13 or even 12.)
* The {{w|Flag of Europe}} has 12 stars forming a circle (as a symbol of harmony); unlike in the US flag, the stars do not represent member states. The flag was first adopted by the Council of Europe in 1955, when it already had 13 members - today there are over 40. The European Communities adopted the Flag of Europe in 1986 before the EC turned into the European Union (currently 27 member states). A 13th star could potentially be added to make a 'baker's EU flag', without major damage to the symbol. In the United States, thirteen stars in a circle is associated with the {{w|Betsy Ross flag}}, the first U.S. flag.
* Magnesium is the element with the ordinal number 12, with twelve protons. Aluminum is number 13, and is a very different material.{{Citation needed}} 'Baker's magnesium' actually has more applications than standard magnesium in baking such as {{w|sodium aluminium phosphate}} used in some baking powders and {{w|aluminum foil}} (often called tinfoil) sometimes used to protect pans or baked goods during baking, but it does not have as much nutritional value.
* In the title text, a count of 144 (12x12) is a gross. Thus, 169 (13x13) would be a 'baker's gross', an addition of not just one but 25 units.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove too soon.}}
:Baker's units
:[A formation comprising 13 items] - Baker's dozen
:[A ruler divided into 13 parts] - Baker's foot
:1:00 PM - Baker's noon
:[A polyhedron with 13 faces] - Baker's dodecahedron
:January 31st - Baker's New Year's Eve
:[Two notes on a staff 14 half-steps apart] - Baker's octave
:[13 people standing in a row] - Baker's jury
:[A flag with 13 stars forming a circle] - Baker's EU flag
:Aluminum - Baker's magnesium

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Math]]

3091: Renormalization

2025-05-21T08:36:23Z

172.69.43.183: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 3091
| date = May 19, 2025
| title = Renormalization
| image = renormalization_2x.png
| imagesize = 221x345px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Applying renormalization to bullies successfully transformed Pete & Pete's Endless Mike into Finite Mike.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by DIRAC'S PRE-REPENTANT BULLY. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

The term {{w|renormalization}} refers to a mathematical toolkit used in quantum field theory and other domains of physics. The concept is mathematically and intuitively complex, and {{w|Renormalization#Attitudes_and_interpretation|controversial}}. Briefly, renormalization techniques permit the replacement of terms in equations that represent postulated initial attributes of a thing (e.g., mass and charge values of an electron) with terms that reference attributes observed experimentally. Renormalization is presumed to account for unobserved interactions among the things in the system being studied that lead to the state of the renormalized thing being different from what was initially postulated, and it can therefore be considered justified and not a {{w|Fudge_factor|fudge factor}}. Equations with renormalized quantities reach finite solutions that can be used to do additional work, whereas those without renormalized quantities reach non-finite (infinite) solutions that cannot.

The joke in this comic is that the earliest renormalization techniques amounted to attempts by physicists to "bully" electrons into accepting self-descriptions that gave the physicists the answers they sought. To illustrate the bullying, the comic invokes the commonplace {{tvtropes|StopHittingYourself|'stop hitting yourself'}} trope, in which the bully (Cueball) grabs a body part of the victim and perpetrates an assault with it, while claiming that the victim is engaged in self-harm. Use of this trope may reference the "unobserved (self-)interactions" that renormalization is presumably accounting for. Megan's "... Wait" represents her starting to get the idea of renormalization, inspired by Cueball's bullying of the electron, as described in the caption, or she may be realising the problem that Cueball's actions will be altering the conditions and so affecting the experimental outcomes, undermining the study.

The title text refers to the character Mike Hellstrom, nicknamed Endless Mike, from the 1989 TV sitcom {{w|The Adventures of Pete & Pete#Enemies|''The Adventures of Pete & Pete''}}. It links back to renormalization, because renormalization lets you remove infinities to get finite solutions, so in that sense it would turn Endless Mike into Finite Mike.

==Transcript==
: [Cueball poking an atom. Megan looks at it with a hand on her chin]
: Cueball: ''Hey, electron!''
: Cueball: ''Stop hitting yourself!''
: Cueball: ''Stop hitting yourself!''
: Megan: ...Wait.

:[Caption below the panel:]
: Renormalization actually started out as an effort to bully electrons.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]

Talk:3011: Europa Clipper

2024-11-14T19:52:39Z

172.69.43.183:

I'm not brave enough to actually add an explanation myself, quite yet, but ... I guess this is a reference to the fact(?) that Europa looks a bit like a creme brulee', when viewed from space? https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/moons/europa/ It does look tasty ... :) [[User:ModelD|ModelD]] ([[User talk:ModelD|talk]]) 12:53, 13 November 2024 (UTC)
:I suspect it's more due to the need to drill through a couple miles of ice to get to the ocean; much like breaking through the sugar crust on a creme broule! [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 13:16, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Thank you to the people at 9AM Post things on another website to try and explain XKCD Comics. -Forgotten_Mail {{unsigned ip|172.69.33.177|13:30, 13 November 2024}}

The comically large spoon!!!!!!!!!! I love those. -[[User:Psychoticpotato|P?sych??otic?pot??at???o ]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 16:38, 13 November 2024 (UTC)
: Don't be sucked in! Protect yourself! https://rathergood.com/2017/02/10/spoonguard/ [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.105|141.101.99.105]] 10:57, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

I think the "Crème brûlée is from France, France is in Europe, the moon is called Europa" connection is a bit of a stretch...? [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 18:36, 13 November 2024 (UTC)
: Eh, it's the same etymology. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.134.230|172.69.134.230]] 11:04, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
:: The issue of the continent and the moon coming from the same classical source (for different reasons) rather stretches the link between the dish (from the country, from the country's region/continent, from the region of Greece, ''possibly'' from the pantheon) and the moon (directly from the pantheon). I agree with the 'stretch' assessment. You can probably find easier and more plausible (but wrong) links worth alluding to than that, which relies upon several steps and a ''possible'' polysemic pair of original links. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.58.45|172.70.58.45]] 12:12, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
:::From an American perspective, Europe might seem like a distant, mysterious place that you might want to send a probe to to gather interesting information, and also somewhere that crème brûlée comes from. It's also potentially confusable (by the easily confused) with Europa. That seems like a reasonable enough connection to make to me. The mention of France is essentially by the by.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.107|172.71.26.107]] 12:23, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
:::It keeps getting said that "Europa is named after Europe", '''which is not correct''' (etymology, BTW, not entomology). I shall have to re-restore some other changes made to the same paragraph in rapid succession whilst I was trying to explain this. Bear with me. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.195|172.70.160.195]] 14:57, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
:::...You don't care, do you. You just keep putting it back in. SMH. Have fun. Someone else will probably be along to correct you ''again'' later. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.92|141.101.68.92]] 15:35, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

"only a spoonful" moment 💔 [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 19:20, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Someone should add a reference to XKCD's previous mention of a Planetary Protection Officer: https://what-if.xkcd.com/117/ [[Special:Contributions/162.158.42.221|162.158.42.221]] 00:09, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

JUICE mentioned!!! cracker ham cheese cracker ham cheese cracker [[User:N-eh|N-eh]] ([[User talk:N-eh|talk]]) 07:31, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
: Edited out, alas. It's a fascinating, and entertaining, experience to set up a starter explanation and then watch it bubble and froth. As with the crème | France | Europe | Europa trajectory (in which I had no part after posting the starter). [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.113|108.162.245.113]] 18:46, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

Here is a list from NASA about spacecraft instrument deployment failures, they are remarkably frequent: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20210020397/downloads/Alphonzo%20Stewart-%20Final%20Paper.pdf [[Special:Contributions/162.158.19.50|162.158.19.50]] 13:00, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

I think we need to have a conversation about how the insertion orbit plan is so chaotic that there is a significant chance that the probe might crash in to and pierce the crust of Europa. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.187.56|162.158.187.56]] 14:36, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
:...and if so, what's the likelihood of hitting just the right angle to scrape off a tasty bit with that spoon? [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 16:04, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
::What would you like it to be? I can't step on butterflies, but I can certainly act according to the purest form of free will by strapping a noise bridge diode to my corpus callosum. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.83|108.162.246.83]] 16:17, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
:Well we just need Elon to lock in the plan that if it crashes then it automatically becomes a sample return mission, and the first SolarCity sales rep to break out +150% of their quota gets to be the one to crash it. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.42.130|162.158.42.130]] 15:56, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
::What part of "Attempt No Landing There" is unclear to you? [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 18:36, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
::In all seriousness, the liquid water is a good reason to be extremely careful so you don't end up detecting {{w|tardigrade}}s, {{w|deinococcus radiodurans}}, or {{w|bacillus subtilis}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.166|172.70.214.166]] 19:16, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

I can ''not'' believe I got ChatGPT to make this for me:
{{cot|You have been warned}}

Europa was this smart, ambitious woman just trying to make it out there in the Mediterranean startup scene. She had her plans, her own thing going on, some solid friends, and a bright future. She wasn’t looking for anything too complicated; she just wanted to keep her options open and figure out her next big move.

Enter Zeus. Now, picture him as that intense CEO type—big, powerful, kind of legendary for his influence (and his *questionable* reputation). He’s been around the block a few times, always looking for the next exciting project or, well… person. Zeus saw Europa, and she was exactly his type: sharp, resourceful, had a lot of potential. He was like, "Yeah, I need *that* in my portfolio."

But Zeus was a little extra with his tactics. Instead of just, you know, scheduling a coffee chat or reaching out on LinkedIn like a normal person, he came up with this elaborate scheme. He disguised himself as this beautiful white bull (yeah, Zeus was *that* guy who would make things way more complicated than necessary). He wandered down to the shore near Europa and her friends, looking majestic and mysterious, and let her come to him.

Europa, understandably, was like, "This bull is kind of weirdly friendly and actually pretty cool." She got curious, went closer, and Zeus played it super smooth, staying calm and approachable. When she got comfortable enough, she even climbed onto his back for a ride—just for fun! I mean, who hasn’t hopped onto a crazy idea because it seemed cool at the time, right?

But then things got wild. Suddenly, Zeus took off, sprinting across the beach and straight into the sea. He didn’t just want to show her the local scene; he was taking her across the entire Mediterranean to Crete, like some super intense onboarding retreat she hadn’t signed up for. By the time they got there, she was probably exhausted, confused, and questioning her life choices.

And here’s the kicker: once they arrived, Zeus was like, “Oh hey, it’s me! Not just some chill bull—surprise, I’m Zeus.” At this point, Europa realized she was in way deeper than she’d ever expected. She ended up staying in Crete, becoming queen and building a legacy, which, sure, sounds great on paper. But you have to wonder if that’s what she really wanted in the first place, or if she was just swept up in the whirlwind of Zeus's charm and grand promises.

So, in the end, Europa's career ended up in a place she never saw coming. She became a name people would remember for centuries, but not necessarily on her own terms. It’s the classic millennial dilemma: she got a high-profile "role" with Zeus, but did she really get to build her own brand, or was she just another line in Zeus’s impressive (and very long) resume?

Maybe Europa would look back on this “opportunity” and think, “Did I even want this? Or did I just get pulled into someone else’s grand plan?” A classic case of getting lost in the allure of “networking,” and honestly, a pretty good reminder to always check out who’s really behind the bull.
{{cob}}
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.23.82|172.68.23.82]] "This bull is kind of weirdly friendly and actually pretty cool" 16:03, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
::"Europa was this smart, ambitious woman...." She was a {{w|nepo baby}}. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.206.231|172.70.206.231]] 18:55, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
:ChatGPT should have learned long ago that it's not cool to reproduce rape culture. But I guess AI just doesn't get better than its training material... [[User:Transgalactic|Transgalactic]] ([[User talk:Transgalactic|talk]]) 16:34, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
::It is apparently aware of the issue:
:::"The myth of Zeus and Europa is problematic from a modern perspective, especially concerning consent. Europa willingly approaches and even climbs onto Zeus, who is disguised as a bull, suggesting an initial level of curiosity and comfort. However, Zeus’s sudden abduction of Europa—taking her across the sea to Crete and revealing his true identity only after they arrive—shows a disregard for her autonomy, as she never consented to go with him under those terms. Her actions are based on Zeus’s deception, and without knowing his true intentions, her choice was not fully informed. In Greek mythology, such abductions were common symbols of divine intervention, reflecting a worldview where gods often overpowered human agency, a stark contrast to today’s emphasis on consent and personal autonomy."
::The issue with Zeus's behavior was tempered by the story that he gave Europa a kingdom to rule and all the riches and luxuries that came with it. Isn't that the way bad boyfriends are excused in our day and age? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.143|172.70.211.143]] 17:45, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
:::Like [https://krapopolis.fandom.com/wiki/Krapopolis#:~:text=Tyrannis%2C%20the%20mortal%20son%20of,self%2Ddestruction%20and%20questionable%20choices. King Tyrannis] in {{w|Krapopolis}}? All that glitters is not gold. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.22.93|172.68.22.93]] 18:02, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
::Given how it's likely not Zeus's momentary crush, that was the Europa concerned (naming the river, region then contintent), all that ChatGPT stuff is interesting but very likely going down totally the wrong trail of ideas. Of course, the phylomemetic development of legends is probably very mixed up, and trying to trace what figures certain phonemes originally refered to (before being cooked and remixed in countless oral 'history' retellings with few written standard versions to keep them static and consistant) is an art in itself. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.26.42|172.71.26.42]] 19:31, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
:::The Greek myths were handed down in writing and by the oral tradition. They are absolutely diverse but the common threads are a large part of what an entire middle age of clerical monks have bestowed upon Western culture. In that tradition, Europa kept her gift kingdom instead of returning home, which suggests some measure of consent after the fact. If you were given a huge island kingdom because some god-bull decided to take you for a surprise swim, would you refuse it? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.129|172.70.211.129]] 19:33, 14 November 2024 (UTC)
::::Since more 'modern' times (to speak of monks, you'd generally be talking about mediæval times onwards, though some priests and scholars of pre-christianity eras may have played some similar roles beforehand), they may have been 'well' documented, but we're talking about bronze-age-and-earlier (mostly) oral traditions that bumbled along for a long time with few persisting writings/engravings. Imagine what ancient records were lost in Alexandria/other destructions, or sat upon stone/clay that has since lain undiscovered for cdnturies but likely crumbled well beyond the ability of any lucky archaeologist to reconstruct.
::::And not all of the {{w|Europa (Greek myth)|various women/beings of that name) could have been just retellings of the same 'original' (with deviations). Zeus's Europa likely, in fact, far post-dates the examples rooted in the pre-Olympian pantheon. Either in 'actual legend' or in the tales that developed to explain the current understanding of the soap-opera that was what gods/titans/whatever had performed to get from the creation of the world to 'now'. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 19:52, 14 November 2024 (UTC)

Talk:3010: Geometriphylogenetics

2024-11-12T23:46:27Z

172.69.43.183:

Does the phrase "maximum likelihood" have any relationship to phylogenetics? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 03:01, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
: {{w|Computational_phylogenetics#Maximum_likelihood|Profoundly so}}. Most contemporary analyses, especially of large datasets, use either maximum-likelihood methodologies or Bayesian inference (q.v.). I will see if I can say something coherent and comprehensible about this in the explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.58|172.71.147.58]] 03:30, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
::If it was you who added the explanation for the title text, nicely done! [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 05:04, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

"Pointy circle" is, of course, an oxymoron. Randall is also making a joke about how older phylogenetic trees were based on anatomy, like saying that squares and triangles are close because they have exoskeletons with straight lines and joints. Now, the tree is (where possible) based on genetic similarity. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 05:10, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Hippos can't swim? Did the BBC lie to us? https://youtu.be/X20NjqMiQyo?si=8pN-xwgKJEWM08ZF
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.186.135|172.68.186.135]] 06:18, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
:Fiona the Hippo begs to differ. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-YRJCSZRJU] [[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 14:40, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
::Not sure if you're being ironic, but that video shows that Fiona ''can't'' swim. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 17:23, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Why was phylogenetic analysis required to establish this relationship? Reuleaux triangles are an intermediate form, demonstrating a close relation between circles and triangles. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.130.208|172.71.130.208]] 06:24, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

''Obviously'', he's doing phylogenetics wrong: the pentagons (& hexagons, not shown) should also be shown as descending from the circles. Plus, the ovoids (far more than a middle step between lentiform & triangle, truly an extant branch in their own right) are not represented ''at all''. A major oversight, to cut such corners, given the point he's circling about?
[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 06:31, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
:There are two competing theories of the origin of circles. They are either very basal polygons (having one side) or very derived (having infinite sides). It's possible that both are true and 'circle' is a polyphyletic group. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 16:19, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
::Circles are priests, obviously. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 23:46, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Someone should add something about how circles and triangles are related through trig in a way that the rest aren't. Sorry I am new to this and don't know how to format my comment correctly.

I'm sure you could develop a 'DNA' sequence for geometric shapes. [Number of active vertices + angle, Number of curves in each side + variation from straight + orientation from centre, thickness of stroke, etc] basically the sort of data in any drawing data of said shape. Thus you could have two circles that look every similar, but one being an extreme Reulaux triangle and the other a 10,000 sided polygon with no side curvature at all! C.f. Swift and swallow! YMMV [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 10:38, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
: The result would be a taxon x character data matrix, the first step in all forms of phylogenetic analysis. On such a small matrix, you could probably perform maximum parsimony analysis by hand, as Hennig did. However, with such a small number of characters per taxon, taxon resolution would probably be low (lots of polytomies instead of fully resolved dichotomies), and [https://wiki.christophchamp.com/index.php?title=Bootstrapping bootstrap support values] would be horrible. The resulting consensus tree would likely be [ahem] sharply criticized - not least because it would be a "mere" {{w|Analysis_of_similarities|similarity analysis}} and not a true phylogeny (not a reconstruction of descent with modification of progeny). Do not submit such a tree for peer review, and especially do not take it to a meeting of the [https://cladistics.org/ Willi Hennig Society]. You have been warned. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.42.130|162.158.42.130]] 13:56, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

:I’m reminded of the incircle and circumcircle of a triangle. Triangles are the only shape where all polygons of that edge count are guaranteed to have an incircle and a circumcircle (unless, of course, it is degenerate). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.24.5|172.71.24.5]] 13:34, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Sorry, but I don't believe in this "Theory of Polygon Evolution". I believe all abstract polygons were created in their current state by intelligent mathematicians. [[User:Mathmannix|Mathmannix]] ([[User talk:Mathmannix|talk]]) 12:21, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

:Heathen - The One True Creator is Euclid! 😉 [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 12:38, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Reminds me of pedigree genetic charts as well, anyways you geomreationists are so absurdly wrong it's laughable /j [[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.130|108.162.238.130]] 13:24, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

'''Obviously''' both triangles and squares descended from circles. But, while triangles evolved from circles with protrusions that extended into points for improved dynamics, squares evolved from circles that developed flattened sides for more stability. Looking forward at their descendants, we see that both shapes have crab-like descendants. But again, developed from very different mechanisms: The evolved triangles's points split and reformed into the crab claws, while the squares evolved into rectangles which developed concave ends that eventually consolidated into the crab claw shape. [[2314: Carcinization]] [[Special:Contributions/162.158.41.73|162.158.41.73]] 20:11, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

It also reminds me of the quadrilateral family tree (google it, I guess), which has always bothered me exactly because it shows just how unapplicable phylogenetics is to geometry, or they are just super incestuous in a time-traveling sort of way? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.43.29|172.70.43.29]] 20:14, 12 November 2024 (UTC)
:Also (re-)interbreeding. c.f. parallelograms that (regularised) become rhombi, but also the "kite" branch can lead, by regularising, to a rhombus. And rhombi descend to the special case of squares, as do special cases of rectangles (differently special cases of parallelograms than rhombi). If anything, the most interesting sub-family of quadrilateral are all the ones that (while not self-intersecting, adding further complications) manage not to be a rhombus, parallelogram ''or'' trapezium. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 23:46, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland Circles are descended from polygons and squares are descended from triangles], at least according to the renowned expert [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Abbott_Abbott Edwin Abbott Abbott]. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.175.23|172.71.175.23]] 21:48, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2932: Driving PSA

2024-05-14T14:31:04Z

172.69.43.183: /* Churchill's Law */

Did the best I could on the explanation, even if it's a bit clunky. [[User:Trogdor147|Trogdor147]] ([[User_talk:Trogdor147|talk]]) 03:59, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Pretty lame strategy. Even with someone waving me on, when I get past them I'll look to the right to make sure. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:22, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
: Right? Just pull into the median in front of the left-turners, then re-assess the situation. --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 12:59, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Maybe they're not trying to kill Randall, but the person in the other lane. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.225|172.71.154.225]] 05:00, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
:It doesn't even need to be a fatal crash. Maybe the person in the other lane is an obstetrician who will intercede in a complex childbirth, and this "accident" will be major enough that that no longer happens, and the child dies... [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 06:55, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
::Or possibly the aim is actually to engineer a meet-cute between Randall and the driver of the other car, so that a critical birth can (eventually) take place...[[Special:Contributions/172.70.160.249|172.70.160.249]] 08:24, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Just curious, as I'm from Germany - does the USA have no traffic lights? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.242.210|198.41.242.210]] 07:15, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
: They do, and they are placed where you can actually see them --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 12:59, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
: They do, and they're placed where they can be used for Captcha challenges.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.81|172.70.86.81]] 14:28, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Uncontrolled intersection with a left turn onto a 4-lane road? US road design, combined with US car-centric settlement planning, must have been made by those more clever, trying-harder assassins that Randall mentions in the title text, and it looks like they've got a lot of people on their list. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.229.131|162.158.229.131]] 07:20, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

: If it was a single lane street, and not three-lane road (or stroad), then accepting granting the right of way / waving in would be perfectly safe (assuming that you watch left). --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:23, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Ok, but... time traveller asassins don't get sent for random harmless people? Getting not one, but MULTIPLE asassins hell-bent on offing him suggests he's going to do something incredibly bad for the world that they're trying to prevent?? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.103.68|162.158.103.68]] 08:35, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
: Randall isn't random and it's not entirely clear that he's harmless either.

Oh boy, a comic about my second-greatest pet peeve on the road! Now if only we could have an xkcd guide to using the acceleration lane. [[User:Phil Srobeighn|Phil Srobeighn]] ([[User talk:Phil Srobeighn|talk]]) 09:51, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
:...and turning signals... [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 09:53, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

A corollary PSA would be to ignore the gestures of any passengers in the other car. I've seen passengers in the front seat wave people to go ahead, without the agreement of the person actually driving the car.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.178.45|172.70.178.45]] 10:29, 14 May 2024 (UTC)Pat

I don't even drive and I hate these people lmao [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 12:40, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

==Churchill's Law==
Just to reframe "''Car that they are waving you into the path of''" into an awkaward phrase NOT ending in a preposition: "''Car into the path of which they are waving you''". (The Churchill thing is a myth, though <https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/07/04/churchill-preposition/> .)
: Yuck - that construction needs waving into the path of an oncoming car. Or possibly it already has been.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 14:31, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Talk:2928: Software Testing Day

2024-05-07T09:28:42Z

172.69.43.183:

What holiday are they referring to? In the UK we will have a long weekend due to the Early May Bank Holiday. But May Day isn't a "thing" in the USA, is it? Or should we just assume this is set in Britain? [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 13:45, 4 May 2024 (UTC)
:Well, that's refering to the official STD(!) set to be on January 0th (+24hr+12hr), so I don't think it's a topical scene.
:It looks like our Leftpondian friends have official ''nationwide'' 'holidays' on: New Year's Day (1/Jan), Martin Luther King, Jr, Day. (3rd Monday in January), Inauguration Day (20/Jan, every 4 years), Presidents Day (3rd Monday in February), Memorial Day (last Monday in May), Juneteenth (19/Jun), Independence Day (4/Jul), Labor Day (1st Monday in September), Columbus Day (2nd Monday in October), Veterans Day (11/Nov), Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday in November), Christmas Day (25/Dec). And then there'll be additional state/more local days, no doubt. (And, because of labo(u)r laws, or insufficient ones, I'm given to believe that might be more of an inconvenience/inapplicability to quite a lot of workers.)
:But this seems to be a highly specific 'QA'/software-testers' tradition, either within a particular company or across ''all'' such professionals. At least within the xkcd universe, which might have all kinds of other strangenesses to it that we're only seeing the vaguest outline of through these comics. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.188|172.71.242.188]] 17:37, 4 May 2024 (UTC)
:"May Day isn't a ''thing'' in the USA, is it?" -- Personal holiday. At my house (Maine USA) a maypole is customary (if snow allows). When I was very young (1950s California) we celebrated in kindergarten, but I think religious bigots cancelled that. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 19:55, 4 May 2024 (UTC)
:Could be talking about Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday that a lot of Americans also celebrate. The same day (May 5) is also Cartoonist Day -- as a cartoonist himself, this could be Randall's way of celebrating it. [[User:N0lqu|-boB]] ([[User talk:N0lqu|talk]]) 14:49, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

I exapnded the "hours on/after midnight" section a bit. Nearly put down that the 'official' day at times used to start at 6:00AM (or dawn, depending upon whether some form of consistent timekeeping or just practical astronomical cycles dominated), so that the post-midnight activities of people (very unusual, for most, but would include liturgical ceremonies) also belonged to the prior daylight cycle. And that "noon" was the "ninth hour" of the day (~3PM, give or take), before clock changes and civil practice moved it to midday. - But this really is beyond the scope of the above explanation, so mentioning it here instead. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.91|162.158.38.91]] 18:09, 4 May 2024 (UTC)
:I work in public transport, where we use times up to 32:00 but ignore daylight saving time on the night it switches (so on that night, 30:00 might be 5am or 7am in the sunday morning). Also, we have different notations for time as a specific point in the day (7:10) or as a duration (7h10). [[User:IIVQ|IIVQ]] ([[User talk:IIVQ|talk]]) 06:47, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

I'll just leave this here :) https://gist.github.com/timvisee/fcda9bbdff88d45cc9061606b4b923ca [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:28, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

Some years ago there were gigs at the local [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB--qzE4JhE indie disco] which started after midnight (because, due to licensing rules, opening doors before midnight would imply extra costs, since it would count as an extra working day). When posting about those gigs I would write something like "1:00 in the night from Friday to Saturday", so as to not be ambiguous. [[User:Rps|Rps]] ([[User talk:Rps|talk]]) 13:09, 6 May 2024 (UTC)

I understood this in a wholly different way.... I thought that since many companies are doing server maintenance + possibly software testing on days where not many people are working, this refers to Cueball (as a software engineer) bitterly commenting about not having a day off when everybody else has.--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.111.177|162.158.111.177]] 06:57, 7 May 2024 (UTC)
: At least for the "software testing" part this is in general not true. Most companies have dedicated test systems, which are, in an ideal world, even separate from the development systems. This is, for example, the default system landscape that SAP recommends for their users (and ofc SAP itself). https://help.sap.com/docs/SOFTWARE_LOGISTICS_TOOLSET_CTS_PLUG-IN/05c12df5b54849c49940a14bc089d8b4/63a30a4ac00811d2851c0000e8a57770.html?locale=en-US [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 07:22, 7 May 2024 (UTC)
: I rather read it as "testing the test system". The meta-test of whether a particularly extreme test would not just fail the test but cause the testing system to failover badly. To this end, ''nothing but the accumulatively bad testing'' can be run (upon the test system), everything else is put on hold (because regular testing added to the test-testing would confound the matter, and be useless anyway if the test-tests made the thing fold under the pressure first) and this forces the testers to keep their hands off everything for the duration (the 'day' given the test value of 0th January, and the rest), much as per the [[Compiling]] down-time.
: If the meta-test goes wrong (causes the meta-testing to fail, or perhaps does not fail 'correctly' at the non-meta test level) then the human testers no longer have their time off and are called back in for their mini-holiday (or no longer allowed to leave, if the failure happens during pre-test-test testing).
: For the crashing of the "recordkeeping system", as per title-text, this could be anything from deliberately "give a test we know crashes the (non-meta) system" by the testers to the non-tester recordkeepers not trusting the testers (and test-testers) and so trying to use the test-test data themselves upon a system of their own that is definitely not test-test-proof because they hadn't had asked for (test-)tester validation of it. (I've been part of a Change Control processing group where we've been made aware of a sub-group that has been reconfiguring its own little corner of the system without due reference to company policy, perhaps due to office politics and "it's nothing to do with them", etc.)
: But I'm not sure it's quite as simple as that. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 09:28, 7 May 2024 (UTC)

2795: Glass-Topped Table

2024-04-18T10:23:48Z

172.69.43.183: /* Explanation */ Adjusting away from the 'dangling reference'.

{{comic
| number = 2795
| date = June 28, 2023
| title = Glass-Topped Table
| image = glass_topped_table.png
| titletext = You can pour a drink into it while hosting a party, although it's a real pain to fit in the dishwasher afterward.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic is a play on the multiple meanings of the word 'glass'. "Glass-topped table" usually means the table top is made from the material glass, but in this comic the phrase further represents a table with a glass surface where surface has been "topped" with a drinking glass. Notably, the glass is part of the table top, merged with the regular glass surface so that the glass can not be lifted off the table. This would thus require the use of a straw to drink from it, or the lifting of the entire table.

Furthermore, the otherwise normal-looking drinking glass looks like it has been placed over ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s83Wrnr5cAw or has 'walked' to]) the edge of the table and is about to fall off. This could make anyone unfamiliar with the table likely to automatically reach out for the glass to prevent what appears to be an imminent disaster. This could have unfortunate consequences, since the glass is not independently movable without shifting the entire table. Assuming the person does not hurt their hand or arm from the unexpected load as they take the strain through sheer reflex or by shattering the glass in the attempt, they may successfully move the glass ''and entire table'' to cause other things on/adjacent to the table to be toppled/struck sideways.

It is not certain if the advertisement for this item makes this configuration clear. By its name alone, buyers might expect to get an ordinary table with a glass surface, but few of them would be interested in buying one when they discover the extra glass attached{{citation needed}} and the caption says this is the least popular item in their furniture store. In a web-page/catalogue picture, the glass would just look like part of the scenic depiction presentation of the table, albeit a weird one. It is not unusual that a table in a commercial or an in-store display would feature glasses or other accessories artfully placed upon it, to give it a sense of scale and contextual use, but the dissonance of the 'carelessly' positioned glass would work against the usual advertising pressures employed. Anyone who still ordered the table, without establishing the true nature of its permanent feature, is also then likely to complain and negotiate a refund/replacement (negating whatever sales were actually made) and write bad reviews (discouraging others from even looking at the product).

The title text adds to this by saying it would be difficult to put the glass in a dishwasher, since you would need to bring the table with it. There are dishwashers [https://www.thekbzine.com/pages/13317/worlds_largest_dishwasher_unveiled/ big enough] to fit tables, but they are not for {{w|Kitchen Debate|regular households}}. And that won't make moving the table any easier. Cleaning the glass after a drink would thus have to be done by hand, and the water in the glass has to be sucked out, mopped up or drained by inverting the whole table (or entire top, if detachable) in a non-damaging way.

==Transcript==
:[The comic shows a square table with a glass surface. The glass surface is not clear enough to see through and may be located on top of an opaque surface. A drinking glass stands nearly half-way over the right edge of the table, so it looks like it is in 'danger' of falling. Apparently, however, it seems that this glass is merged with the glass surface of table, thus it cannot fall off or be removed. There is a caption below the panel:]
:The least popular item at my furniture store is probably the table with a decorative drinking glass built into the edge of the glass top.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Puns]]

2916: Machine

2024-04-10T15:15:24Z

172.69.43.183: /* Trivia */

{{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==
{{incomplete|Created by a WELL OILED ROBOT. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
This 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.

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, see the [[#Trivia|trivia section]] below.

This is a spin on the game {{w|The Incredible Machine}}. The title text explicitly references this, albeit in a linguistic reversal.

Upon loading the page, you are presented with marbles being added to a box by geared wheels, with a button to open a “tool panel”. You are encouraged by Cueball to direct the marbles into a little “output” gear, and told that marbles have a lifespan of 30 seconds to reduce clutter. 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).

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 an input on the ceiling or a wall to outputs of a matching color 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. 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. When you have built a machine which succeeds in routing enough balls to the output, a popup will prompt you to submit your cell to be added to the public machine. Typically, inputs and outputs only accept balls of a single colour, and any balls of another colour which pass through an output will reduce the completion counter. However, some outputs accept multiple colours, indicated by a double arrow, and some inputs produce multiple colours. 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 behaviour to account for this.

<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 brings you to a page where you can drag around to view all of the machines that have been submitted, 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.

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 periodically dump their contents. Balls in the pit are subject to the same 30s culling rule as balls in the cells above. If no balls are directed towards the containers, the pit will be empty. If one or two streams of balls are 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. More streams of balls are likely to add more changes. Balls which miss or overspill the pit fall out of the bottom of the frame.

Under construction cells will feed balls of the appropriate colour into neighbouring 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.

When you press submit, you will see your creation placed on the grid. However if you refresh that cell will likely be under construction or replaced with someone else's machine. However, other people's machines are consistently placed, so it appears that there is some moderation process selecting a machine for each cell out of the machines submitted by users. 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.

The grid is 12 cells wide, and grows in height. The largest size observed so far is 12x50, for a total of 600 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 colour balls. Indeed, using the follow ball trick (see Trivia) appears to show that it is quite rare for a ball to survive more than several machines without getting stuck somewhere. 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.

===Toolbox items===
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|+ List of objects
|-
! Description !! Effect !! Image
|-
| Plank || Static || [[File:2916_plank.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hammer || Static || [[File:2916_hammer.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Sword || Static || [[File:2916_sword.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Hinged scoop || 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 || [[File:2916_anvil.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Brick || Static || [[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]]
|-
| Round bumper || Bounces balls away at significantly higher speed || [[File:2916_round_bumper.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Triangle bumper left || Bounces balls away at significantly higher speed || [[File:2916_bumper_left.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Triangle bumper right || Bounces balls away at significantly higher speed || [[File:2916_bumper_right.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Attractor/Black Hole || Pulls balls toward center, can be resized || [[File:2916_attractor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Repulsor/White hole || Repels balls away from center, can be resized || [[File:2916_repulsor.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Prism || "Refracts" balls as they enter and exit, causing them to curve to follow the color of the ball as much as possible{{Actual citation needed|...I can believe this might have been the intent, but I've never seen any such behaviour, even when dripping combined red and blue balls in from the same incident angle on the same spot, both types seem to take whatever exit they want, unpredictable and not at all differentiated between colours.}} || [[File:2916_prism.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Wheel || Spins depending on arrow keys [right/left] pressed while selected (default:anticlockwise), 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 || [[File:2916_trophy.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Glass cup || Static || [[File:2916_cup.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || Swats away balls in front of themself (was added later) || [[File:2916_cat_new.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|+ Characters
|-
! Description !! Image
|-
| Ponytail with raised arms || [[File:2916_ponytail_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Ponytail standing || [[File:2916_ponytail.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cueball with raised arms || [[File:2916_cueball_arms.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| White Hat || [[File:2916_whitehat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Knit Cap sliding, resting, or floating? || [[File:2916_knitcap_resting.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Knit Cap || [[File:2916_knitcap.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Helmet? || [[File:2916_helmet.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Probably Deterministic sign || [[File:2916_deterministic.png|frameless|upright=0.25]]
|-
| Squirrel || [[File:2916_squirrel.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| [[1682: Bun|Bun]] || [[File:2916_rabbit.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|-
| Cat || [[File:2916_cat.png|frameless|upright=0.125]]
|}

=== 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
|}

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 cannot be levitated by a vertical fan. An incline across any such fan(s) will levitate only non-Greens. 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 cannot be levitated by a vertical 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.
| *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]"]

:[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==
*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.
*There are some secret key combinations hidden, here are a few of them
**ctrl+alt+b -> follow balls (note: this will make the ball you follow immortal - not subject to the 30s timeout rule)
**ctrl+option+shift+d -> debug overlay
*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]]

{{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]]

Talk:2916: Machine

2024-04-08T12:51:44Z

172.69.43.183: /* Prism Use? */

rather late for an april fools comic innit? also there doesn't seem to be anything exciting in this one lol, none of the usual cool exploration easter eggs, as far as i could tell at least [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.76|172.71.178.76]] 16:41, 6 April 2024 (UTC)Erfaniom

: We're exploring crowdsourced human creativity here, in a way, so it can be a lot more interesting then Randall's exploration comics, at least for me, because i did take two years of GCSE psychology and enjoyed it. [[Special:Contributions/172.64.238.130|172.64.238.130]]

Just popped over using Chrome on Android and all I see is four "missing picture" logos spinning around, plus another down the bottom right... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.68.193|141.101.68.193]] 18:13, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Okay, followup: it behaves quite differently on the non mobile site. You get two entry points with red balls and yellow balls and you need to place the various gizmos to direct the balls to the correct exit point. Once enough have correctly passed to turn the red X into a green tick, you have the option to submit. If you do, once you have named your design it will be added to the grid with other submissions all of which exist to push red and yellow balls around. (if you come across "Memories of Ragnarok", that's mine) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.207|172.71.134.207]] 18:27, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
::The number of inputs appears to vary between 1 and 4, each of a different color, with one color-coded output for each. [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

On the "machine" section, you see lots of "under construction cells". Perhaps this will develop as more are submitted. I notice the "under construction tape" has "DJIA" and "31415", perhaps a reference to "dow jones industrial average" and the first five digits of pi. [[User:Zeimusu|Zeimusu]] ([[User talk:Zeimusu|talk]]) 18:37, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Whenever someone submits a cell, it fills in one of the under construction cells. [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

I wanted to add an image for each object, but do not have the necessary access, can someone who has access add the images that I linked in the table so they can be included? [[User:Claire Kholin|Claire Kholin]] ([[User talk:Claire Kholin|talk]]) 18:49, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

I found a discussion with some guy talking about the API at https://euphoria.leet.nu/room/xkcd/ ; this could be useful for the wiki.

<code>
[c+1] now time to try fucking with the api
[c+1] https://incredible.xkcd.com/
[userwithnoaccount] 404
[c+1] it seems there are numbered machines under incredible.xkcd.com/machine/x
[c+1] returns a grid of individual machinlets
[c+1] which are uids like 3a7af27c-5389-5dcb-b660-3feab6be2ceb
[c+1] they're stored at urls like incredible.xkcd.com/folio/3a7af27c-5389-5dcb-b660-3feab6be2ceb
[c+1] there appear to be 33 machines total
[c+1] the json it returns seems to refer to these as "versions"
[c+1] $ curl -s https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/21 | jq ".version"
21
[c+1] there is a machine/0, but it's all null
[c+1] going to https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/current redirects to the current machine
[c+1] $ curl -sL https://incredible.xkcd.com/machine/current | jq ".version"
35
[c+1] wait, is that the *total* number of mahcines?
[c+1] i would've thought there'd be more
[c+1] this whole think is rather esoteric
[c+1] Written in rust, too: https://rapier.rs/
[c+1] Uh oh.
https://i.hypercone.us/?v=8e283d
[c+1] HMMM
https://i.hypercone.us/?v=079f8f
[c+1] it seems there is no limit
[c+1] i've uploaded a ~50M title
</code>

[[Special:Contributions/172.70.57.146|172.70.57.146]]

Had quite a lot of fun, added a few 'successful' machines to the grid. Noted that whenever I try to use the Prism that (after a short delay) the comic-pane blanks and I need to refresh the page/get a completely new 'challenge' to start from scratch, so I'm just not using the prism at all (used most of the other items, in combination or 'just the one across the whole board', whichever seems most fun). But it doesn't seem to do what I'd like it to do, which is sort multiple colours from the same inflow into different outflow directions. Which would be ''very'' useful in a 'crossroads' situation, the general solution of directing them cross-path being too prone to random collisions. Also might be useful in the 'submitted machine grid', as I note that errors propagate, whereas adding a filter on all inputs would clean out (dispose of/send off to a valid gate?) the rogue balls. Anyway, gonna have to come back to this later when there's more time... Maybe then I'll even have something useful to add to the Explanation. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 19:03, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

The balls appear to be different weights. I just saw a machine that used fans to separate yellows from greens and blues in a sort of 'wheat from the chaff' manner to direct them to their correct outputs. I wonder what other hidden tricks are included. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.1.159|172.68.1.159]] 19:40, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

They're not all accepted, though it makes you think they are. Or something else more complex is going on we haven't realized yet. I made a machine that was working reliably, submitted it, and saw it on the overall grid. Reloading from a different browser I found the same location of the machine, with the same surroundings, but my machine had been replaced. It's nowhere else on the grid either. The first browser still shows it (but not after a reload with a cache clear). I'm not sure if there's some kind of "save" event that needs to happen beyond seeing your machine in the broader one, or if all user collaboration is an illusion, or if the system changes its mind about us somehow.

: Yeah, i've been seeing this too. Please tell me if you find any of my machines, images at https://i.hypercone.us/?v=22d562 , https://i.hypercone.us/?v=ad8e3a , and https://i.hypercone.us/?v=8d4d6a . I want to be one of the few to have added Catalan and Spanish to the grid. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.134.164|172.71.134.164]] 20:56, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

I've added some more observations to the page. Also, a guess which is too uncertain to put on the main page: The ball launcher for the yellows on the far left side misses a lot, and the yellow container isn't the one on the left. So I think the whole machine with crossing streams will result in the colors being sorted in their container order, and possibly have the streams combined and deposited at the bottom just above the containers. --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.100|172.71.147.100]] 21:07, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

has anyone seen the boat at the very bottom? [[User:Mushrooms|Mushrooms]] ([[User talk:Mushrooms|talk]]) 21:21, 6 April 2024 (UTC)

trying to see it on Firefox for Ubuntu and it just tells me to "visit xkcd.com to view" - THAT'S WHERE I AM?! Tried clearing website data (but not my entire cache) and that didn't help. Is there something I'm missing?

Oooh, just had one with four ball-entries (four colours) and ''three'' exits (one caters for two arrows). Pity it's rather complicated to get entries to exits (even if I can merge two of the streams). Might have to give up on it, but I'd like to have seen how it fits in with the 'submited grid'. i.e. someone else gets a two-colour introduction spot. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.119|162.158.74.119]] 22:37, 6 April 2024 (UTC)
:Me again. I'm just refreshing the page, looking at the pattern of entries/exits (just a dozen or so screens in, getting some repeats of pattern, indicating that it's going back to tiles it was suggesting before, probably depends on how many others are contributing and extending...)
:Found another 'double-colour' example. Two yellows ''from the same side'', which probably means that there's a two-yellows been asked to exit from the neighbour (will check shortly).
:Quickly adapting from my spreadsheet notation, "R, Y, G, B" in order, each "(Entry, Exit)", I've been using <dir> of L/R/T/B and a number (nominally percentage, though seems to include only values of 20, 30, 50, 70 and 80, so it ''might'' be more 1/6..5/6?) relating to the distance along from L to R (for T/B) or T to B (for L/R).
:This line is therefore (0,0)(L20+L70,R30+B70)(R80,L80)(T70,L50) ... no reds, two yellow pairings, a red pairing, a blue pairing. Would require at least two path-crossings (but I was going to calculate those things later, and double-colours might confuse my intended simple line-intersection calculation).
:...anyway, spent some time on this message, which might mean I'll get into a 'new batch' of available patterns as people have succeeded some of the challenges that I've been 'swiping left'. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 19:28, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:...very next click: (0,0)(T30+L20,R20+R70)(R80,L80)(R50,B50), which is clearly the actual left-neighbour of the above. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.19|172.70.162.19]] 19:32, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:Ok, stopped my refreshing to [https://imgur.com/a/OMFOmzy 'solve' a screen]. First of all I routed both yellows entries (right-upper and upper-right) to one yellow exit (middle-left) and gradually teased the greens across (lower-left to middle-right), as that way I was avoiding a criss-cross of balls, but the the other yellow exit (left-lower) was, of course, invalid.
:Changed it to drop one stream of yellows down towards the lower exit, across the rapidly firing greens (added a fan to filter away the occasional yellow that gets bounced over there, not much of an opportunity to filter falling-greens out of the yellow exit, so apologies to whoever gets the sceen below). Submited as "Two Yellows, One Green!", whether or not that'll save (apparently, I should continue to contribute and not refresh/close, or else the server will not keep the solution?).
:Interestingly, all four adjacent tiles are "Under construction", and if I scroll up... *DARN* the comic has blanked out (nothing there between the upper PREV/RANDOM/NEXT buttons and the lower ones, just whitespace). This may mean that it did not save. This is the kind of 'page crash' I get when I try using a Prism or get too many balls rattling around on top of a Black Hole. Perhaps it doesn't like that I'm scrolling into an Under Construction that shouldn't be there? (But then, why ''is'' it there?)
:Anyway, all extra information for everyone.
:I'll just refresh the page and go back and do some more entry/exit mapping, maybe? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 20:17, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

If you combine a bunch of these silly claw things in the middle by just spamming it, it begins to lag and do some chaotic collisions, even without balls colliding on it. It's curious how it does that seemingly randomly though. I wonder how calculations are added and if there's a tiny sprinkle of RNG. (Also, errors occur and say something about damaging recursion in the Rust programming language, so I guess we know how it was made. It's also pretty weird how there's not a lot of opening combinations? It's possible that the machine loops over in chunks of gears or something (that's what I'll call them). ([[User talk:Leo|talk]]) 13:15, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

If you place a black hole in the centre of a wheel, it makes the wheel behave unpredictably between resets. Sometimes it's almost normal, sometimes it's a lot faster than usual, and sometimes it's stopped but launches balls that touch it with extreme force. I was able to use this to submit a machine which didn't actually let a single ball through after being submitted. https://i.hypercone.us/?v=928bcd [[Special:Contributions/162.158.33.149|162.158.33.149]] 01:19, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

The page says that (and I have taken note of) the ball hue is ''coded'' to certain values, but is there a logic to those values that might be derived from the colour (either as RGB triplet or HSV/other colourspace definition). For example, the two ball-types with zero green component in their makeup are 'unit density' (green is far heavier "green+red" is far lighter, so it's not a simple relationship, unless it converts from °hue, in some way) and the only secondary colour exhibits non-zero drag. There's the possibility that it just derived from "we need different properties, we need different colours, we have no reason to connect either with other deliberately" or even some non-mathematical symbology (fire=red, water=blue(?), earth=green, air(/sunlight?)=yellow). But it makes me wonder what combination of properties cyan/magenta balls might have, if added. (Or is the choice of those four colours constrained, anyway? Though R/G colorblindness is already something of an accessibility failure, if anyone suffers that.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.205|172.69.194.205]] 17:02, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

[https://pastebin.com/7PAiLnyF Python script to get the URL and title of each Cell in the current machine]

[https://pastebin.com/xBhywGde Result of running that script at the moment] (encoded with ROT13 because pastebin wouldn't let me save it otherwise)
:has anybody at all whatsoever been able to find their creation using this API? [[User:Bellydrum|Bellydrum]] ([[User talk:Bellydrum|talk]]) 21:58, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

[https://pastebin.com/jN5MP2za Result of running that script on the first 42 machines], at least on these it looks like the only difference is that one cell is added each time? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.99.195|172.71.99.195]] 17:22, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

I've submitted four now, none of which was accepted. I tend to spend a lot of time getting them just right. Any hints as to what the acceptance criteria might be? Or do I just stink at this?
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.59.204|172.69.59.204]] 19:47, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

There appears to be a new object: a cat that bats things that touch it.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.214.39|172.69.214.39]] 20:17, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

Is anyone else experiencing the bug where prisms cause the comic to disappear (leaving only the white background where it was) after a while? It makes viewing the whole machine basically impossible. (On further testing it appears to be firefox-exclusive.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.38|172.70.162.38]] 20:31, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:I've had the "Prisms break things" from the beginning (before any practical content). As in, trying to use them in a design breaks things. But I ''did'' glance upon their occasional use in the 'view submissions grid'. Right now I'm suffering from "white only" issue (see my "multi-yellow" accounts, above). I ''am'' using Firefox, if that's indeed relevant to this issue, but right now I'm not near any other up-to-date browser I care to use. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:37, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
:I'm getting the same issue with black holes (which probably makes more sense - put a black hole there and you'd expect everything else to disappear :o) - except that on one occasion I was able to put about 6 black holes in before the 7th one vanished everything.[[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.121|172.69.194.121]] 09:15, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Has anyone seen their own cell in the machine at all yet? A manual approval system is probably necessary for obvious reasons, but if so it does seem to be moving quite slowly.
[[Special:Contributions/172.69.65.24|172.69.65.24]] 02:58, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

== Level scrolling bug ==

When one views the whole machine, and scrolls down far enough, everything just disappears, and the comic is completely unresponsive. Has anyone else seen this? [[Special:Contributions/198.41.236.152|198.41.236.152]] 20:38, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

:I'm now seeing the same issue, I wasn't before. (I'm using Chrome) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.20|172.70.162.20]] 21:06, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

::A hard refresh appears to have fixed this for me (same person as above). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.101|141.101.99.101]] 10:28, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

:I've been having this issue as well (I'm using firefox). Opening the site in Edge instead seemed to work around it for me, so it might only affect Firefox (and derivatives). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:27, 7 April 2024 (UTC)
::See also the 'firefox bug' comments currently immediately above this section. (Please don't ask me to start Edge up, I hate it, won't use it any more than the system requires me to...) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.163.31|172.70.163.31]] 21:37, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

:Update - I did a hard refresh so I could play around with the new additions and I'm no longer encountering the bug, even on firefox. I think the "white screen" bug is fixed now and you just need to hard-refresh to download the fixed JS instead of using the cached one. (same person as 172.70.163.31 and 172.70.162.38) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.16|172.70.86.16]] 11:16, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

==New Category: Ball Pit?==

What do you think about a new category for comics with [[ball pits]]? [[150]], [[219]], [[485]], [[498]], [[2916]]? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.229|162.158.134.229]] 21:50, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

== Prism Use? ==

Can the prism be used to sort balls by color? (or in any other way that is useful and different?) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.34.61|172.68.34.61]] 12:11, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
:From what I've seen, no. Though may be ''extremely'' susceptible to incident angle. As far as my own use has been, they seem to randomise the trajectory (possibly also do a total-internal-reflection, I've had balls bounce around and exit at ''really'' weird angles, but it's hard to collimate a feed of balls into a single track. Oh, and when balls do a lot of 'internal bouncing' it often forced me to road the comic (overloaded the physics engine?), so could not continue to tweak the same design.
:On the other hand, perhaps this was the ''intent'', and just code/browser failings made it work erratically. Maybe would be an idea to go back and retest for this (anybody who can), do a little !!science!! to be recorded and explained on the page. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.43.183|172.69.43.183]] 12:51, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

751: Swimsuit Issue

2024-02-04T18:30:11Z

172.69.43.183: An improvement? As I think was requested...

{{comic
| number = 751
| date = April 16, 2010
| title = Swimsuit Issue
| image = swimsuit_issue.png
| titletext = Parents: talk to your kids about popup blockers. Also, at some point, sex. But crucial fundamentals first!
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Sports Illustrated}}, while a sports magazine (from what the title implies), is infamous for its {{w|Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue|Swimsuit Issue}}, a yearly issue that heavily features women wearing revealing swimsuits (again, from what the title implies), something generally agreed upon as inappropriate for children.{{Citation needed}}

However, the joke is on the father. Before he could stop the child from reading, the child had already made it clear that he had seen {{w|Hardcore pornography|hard-core pornography}} in the {{w|Pop-up ad|pop-up ads}} he had encountered. He is familiar with the sight of women being "double penetrated" (i.e. engaged in simultaneous vaginal and anal sex) and that said women are completely naked (implied by his surprise to see similar-looking women wearing swimsuits in the magazine). Thus, the swimsuit issue, in which the women are wearing ''some'' clothing and are not engaged in sexual activity, is relatively tame.

The title text has [[Randall]] suggest that {{w|Ad blocking|pop-up blockers}} are far more important than {{w|The birds and the bees}}, a stance that most people do not agree with. There is some sense towards this approach, however. While "the birds and the bees" conversation would have to wait until the child has matured enough to understand, the removal of explicit pop-ups (and other advertisements) is arguably more urgent. Pop-up blockers alone would not prevent '''everything''', but are a valuable asset nonetheless.

==Transcript==
:[A cueball-child, standing and perusing an apparent magazine that they are holding. Cueball himself is approaching in a hurry, already reaching out one arm to intercede in some way.]
:Child: What's this?
:Father: Oh! That's daddy's ''Sports Illustrated'' Swimsuit Issue! It's not appropriate for—
:Child: Wow! They look just like the ladies who get double-penetrated in the popup ads!
:Child But with clothes on!
:Child: Gosh!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sex]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Kids]]