explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2231

2021-06-01T18:38:20Z

172.70.35.17: Redirected page to 2231: the Time Before And After Land

#REDIRECT [[2231: the Time Before And After Land]]

2231

2021-06-01T18:38:10Z

172.70.35.17: Redirected page to 2231: The Time Before And After Land

#REDIRECT [[2231: The Time Before And After Land]]

1252: Increased Risk

2021-05-12T12:07:38Z

172.70.35.17: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1252
| date = August 16, 2013
| title = Increased Risk
| image = increased_risk.png
| titletext = You may point out that strictly speaking, you can use that statement to prove that all risks are tiny--to which I reply HOLY SHIT WATCH OUT FOR THAT DOG!
}}
==Explanation==
The panel satirises the common misunderstanding of the concept of percentage. Quoting a percentage change without mentioning the base probability that this ratio acts on is meaningless (outside of arithmetic for arithmetic's sake). Most everyday communication, however, succumbs to such incompleteness. In the aftermath of this ambiguity, people tend to conflate relative and absolute changes.

If the probability of a shark attack at the North beach is 5 per million, then the probability of shark attack at the South beach is still not more than 6 per million. The difference between these values is not enough to normally justify choosing one beach over the other, even though a "20% greater" chance sounds significant when stated out of this larger context.

[[Cueball]] parodies the concern by noting that by going to a beach three times instead of two, their chances of attack by dogs with handguns in their mouths (a ludicrous and unrealistic scenario as dogs cannot buy guns{{Citation needed}} and are not likely to pick one up off the ground) increases by 50%. If the chance of the dog attack is one per billion on each visit to the beach, then the chance of attack increases over multiple visits; regardless it's still one in a billion for any specific visit. This does not change the overall improbability of there ever being a dog swimming with a gun in its mouth.

[[Beret Guy]] misunderstands Cueball's probability, exhibiting the {{w|gambler's fallacy}} by believing that since they haven't been attacked in their first two trips, the chance of attack by dogs with handguns is higher on this outing.

This is a common misunderstanding of statistics. While the overall probability of an attack in three trips would be higher than in a single trip, it doesn't change the fact that in each individual trip, the probability is still the same; whether or not they managed to avoid being attacked in their first two trips, the results of these trips do not factor into the probability equation of the third trip.

This also can be illustrated by coin flips: if one flips a coin ten times in a row, no matter what the result of each previous flip is (even if it were nine heads in a row), the odds of getting heads on the tenth coin flip remains 50%. In other words, past experience does not impact subsequent flips.

The caption clarifies Cueball's point, but without sarcasm.

Then again, the title text objects to this point (that a tiny risk increased by 50% is still tiny). If this 50% increment is done repeatedly, the risk can get arbitrarily high, while the statement says that it is still tiny. This can be compared to the {{w|Sorites paradox}} (the "paradox of the heap"), which involves a "heap" of sand from which grains of sand are removed individually. If one assumes that, after removing a single grain, a heap of sand is still considered a heap of sand, and that there are a limited number of grains of sand in the heap, then one is forced to accept the conclusion that it can still be considered a heap of sand even if there is only a single grain of sand (or even none at all).

Being shot by a swimming dog with a handgun in its mouth is also specifically referenced in what if? 146, [https://what-if.xkcd.com/146/ Stop Jupiter].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, Ponytail, and Beret Guy are standing around. Cueball and Ponytail have beach towels. Ponytail is looking at her cell phone. Beret Guy has his hands up to his face, looking distressed.]
:Ponytail: We should go to the north beach. Someone said the south beach has a 20% higher risk of shark attacks.
:Cueball: Yeah, but statistically, taking three beach trips instead of two increases our odds of getting shot by a swimming dog carrying a handgun in its mouth by '''''50%!'''''
:Beret Guy: Oh no! This is our third trip!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Reminder: A 50% increase in a tiny risk is '''''still tiny'''''.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Dogs]]
[[Category:Statistics]]
[[Category:Sharks]]

829: Arsenic-Based Life

2021-04-28T00:43:40Z

172.70.35.17: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 829
| date = December 3, 2010
| title = Arsenic-Based Life
| image = arsenic_based_life.png
| titletext = According to a new paper published in the journal Science, reporters are unable to thrive in an arsenic-rich environment.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic is about the December 2010 announcement of the (since refuted) discovery of {{w|extremophile}} bacteria that incorporate arsenic instead of phosphorous into some of their biochemistry. The first three panels depict a group of scientists—including one shown with long curly hair, identifiable from this hairstyle as Felisa Wolfe-Simon, the post-doctoral research associate who spearheaded the arsenic research (see [[2421: Tower of Babel]] for another female scientist who is identifiable by her hairstyle)—preparing for their press conferences announcing the details of the discovery.

The trio are worried that the press conference about their discovery will be less exciting to the reporters, because the press are expecting news of life on {{w|Saturn}}'s largest moon, {{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}. The researchers decide to try and make the event more exciting, but they don't know how to throw a good party. As a result, they look up advice on the internet and decide to serve cocktails and {{w|Hors d'oeuvre|hors d'œuvres}} to fit the theme of the event.

The final panel shows the result, where the reporters are either dead or dying. It is implied that in order to fit the theme the researchers have laced the food and drinks with arsenic.

{{w|Arsenic}} is a chemical element which is known to be poisonous to humans and most other life forms. In 2010 {{w|NASA}} announced the discovery of bacteria {{w|GFAJ-1}} and claimed it to be able to sustain itself when starved of phosphorus, by substituting arsenic for a small percentage of its phosphorus. Most scientists did not believe in this and it was disproven in 2012.<ref>Tobias J. Erb; Patrick Kiefer; Bodo Hattendorf; Detlef Gunter; Julia Vorholt (July 8, 2012). "GFAJ-1 Is an Arsenate-Resistant, Phosphate-Dependent Organism". Science 337 (6093): 467–70. doi:10.1126/science.1218455. PMID 22773139. Retrieved 2012-07-10.</ref>

The comic draws its humor by picking on both scientists and reporters. It is a common theme in xkcd to show scientists who may be extremely clever within their field, but sometimes lack common sense and are inept at social situations. Reporters are often criticized for over sensationalizing discoveries and hunting for exciting stories.

==Transcript==
:[Three people, a curly dark haired girl with a ponytail, Megan and Cueball, stand looking at a laptop screen, which is sitting on a desk. The ponytail girl is pointing at the screen. There is no speak line down to her, but from her posture it must be assumed she does the talking written above the three]
:Ponytailed girl: Our arsenic-based DNA discovery is cool, but these reporters are expecting life on Titan! Our press conference will be such a letdown!

:[The ponytailed girl turns around to face Megan, zooming in so Cueball is not in the frame.]
:Ponytailed girl: Okay, we need to make it more exciting for them. How do you make an event entertaining?
:Megan: Dunno, I suck at parties. Music, I guess?

:[The ponytailed girl turns back around and leans over to start typing on the computer, while the other two look on. Megan puts her hand to her chin.]
:Ponytailed girl: WikiHow says you can "serve cocktails and hors d'œrves that fit the theme of your event."
:Megan: Easy enough!

:[The ponytailed girl stands at a podium behind a lectern ready to deliver the news while Cueball stands amongst the audience with a tray with three drinks glasses. A fourth glass lies at foot of the lectern on the podium. Two Cueball-like guys in the audience is lying dead on the floor, one of them having fallen backwards in his chair, a third Cueball-like guy is still standing but has his hands up to his throat as he is suffocating and finally Ponytail is slumped over in her seat with her head on her chest. One empty chair is still standing.]

==Trivia==

The words "hors d'oerves" at the comic are just a misspelling by Randall for "hors d'oeuvres" (in French ''"hors d'œuvre"'' both singular and plural). The English pronunciation of these words is awr-DURVZ /ɔrˈdɜrvz/, with the R '''before''' the V, not after, which explains the mistake.<ref>http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hors+d%27oeuvre</ref> As opposed to the original French pronunciation, where the v and r keep the same order.<ref>http://fr.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C5%93uvre</ref>

The girl with the curly ponytail in this comic is different from the character commonly referred to as [[Ponytail]], the real Ponytail, on the other hand, is actually found among the dying reporters in the final panel.

==References==
<references/>

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Public speaking]]

2421: Tower of Babel

2021-04-28T00:41:49Z

172.70.35.17: /* Trivia */

{{comic
| number = 2421
| date = February 5, 2021
| title = Tower of Babel
| image = tower_of_babel.png
| titletext = Soon, linguists will be wandering around everywhere, saying things like "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" and "more people have been to Russia than I have," and speech will become unintelligible.
}}

==Explanation==

The story of the {{w|Tower of Babel}} is the Biblical explanation for the existence of different languages in the world. In the story, humans endeavor to build a tower reaching heaven. Their arrogance angers God and prompts him to sabotage the project. He does this by "confounding their speech" (commonly interpreted as giving everyone their own language), inhibiting their ability to work together.

In this retelling, however, the events are the same, but the motives changed. God is pleased with the tower, and promises to create a diversity of languages, not as a punishment, but as a reward for the member of the party who finds words interesting. Megan seems to recognize the potential issues this would cause, but the word-loving woman is enthusiastic. This plays on [[Randall]]'s various geeky interests, recognizing that complexities of the world, which frustrate many people, are a source of great joy and interest to others. A world with only one language would make travel and global communication much easier, but for those with an interest in linguistics, it would be deeply limiting, as there would be only one language to study.

The party that ascends to the top of the tower consists of [[Cueball]], [[Megan]] and a curly-haired woman, who may be the linguist {{w|Gretchen McCulloch}} as she was depicted in [[2381: The True Name of the Bear]].

{{w|Phonology}} is the study of the sounds used in a language or dialect, or of the systems that languages use to organize sounds. For example, English has the words "light" and "right", indicating a distinction between /l/ and /r/, but other languages, such as Japanese, do not, resulting in the (in)famous stereotype. On the other hand, English does not make a distinction between /u/ and /y/, while French does, having words such as "le but" (the goal) and "le bout" (the tip).

{{w|Morphosyntactic alignment}} is the study of the relationship between the subject and object, as well as how languages indicate which is which. For example, in the sentence "the dog chased the cat", it's indicated that the dog is the one doing the chasing because it comes before the verb "chased". Other languages might switch it around: "the dog the cat chased", or use affixes to mark which is which: "the doga chased the cato" / "the cato chased the doga". (Note that all four sentences mean the same thing.)

The title text expands the joke by suggesting that the miscommunication caused by the Tower of Babel is not due to language barriers, but instead because linguists have created intentionally meaningless sentences to illustrate points about grammar, and identifies two famous examples of such. "{{w|Colorless green ideas sleep furiously}}", coined by linguist {{w|Noam Chomsky}} in 1957, is an example of a sentence that is structurally correct but contains paradoxes and meaningless comparisons: Something cannot be both colorless AND green (see {{w|Invisible Pink Unicorn}}), ideas do not sleep, and sleeping generally is not done furiously.{{Citation needed}} That said, the sentence "colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is so well known in linguistics that a competition to make the sentence meaningful was held in 1985 and {{w|Colorless_green_ideas_sleep_furiously#Attempts_at_meaningful_interpretations|attracted a number of entrants}}.

"More people have been to Russia than I have" is an example of {{w|comparative illusion}}. This sentence seems to make sense at first, but upon deeper analysis does not. Many people misinterpret its meaning as "I do not own/have in my household as many people as those who have been to Russia."

==Transcript==
:[The Tower of Babel is shown. It has a broad two sectioned base and above that extends straight up out of the top of the frame, with 10 identical segments. This is seen from afar, so the three people standing at the base of the tower is very small. But Cueball and Megan can be easily identified. They are standing on either side of a woman with big curly hair (which is first clear in the next panel). The text spoken is written over the tower in white sections that hides the tower. But the tower can be seen above, between and below these two text segments:]
:Cueball: The Tower of Babel is complete!
:Megan: Let's go meet God!

:[Cueball, the curly haired woman and Megan are now standing at the top of the Tower of Babel. The top is made of bricks, but the part of the last segment before the top looks like those shown in the first panel. God is represented by an off-panel voice coming from a star burst at the top of the panel. The three people look up in that direction.]
:Cueball: Hi God!
:God (off-panel): Wow, nice tower!
:God (off-panel): You did a great job! I'm so proud!
:Megan: Thanks!

:[Same settings but Megan has turned towards the curly haired woman holding an arm out towards her. The woman has taken one hand to her chin.]
:God (off-panel): I'm going to give you a reward.
:God (off-panel): What do you like about the world?
:Curly haired woman: Hmm. Words are really cool.
:Megan: No, wait-

:[Same settings, in a broader panel. The curly haired woman lifts her hands up curled into fists. Her yell comes from a starburst over her head, to indicate the difference to normal speech. Megan has taken her arm down.]
:God (off-panel): Great! I'm going to give you lots of languages to study, each with its own phonology, word ordering, morphosyntactic alignment...
:Curly haired woman: '''''YESSSSSS!'''''
:Megan: We should '''''not''''' have brought a linguist.

==Trivia==
In [[2381: The True Name of the Bear]], sentences spoken by the curly haired-woman, the suspected Gretchen McCulloch do not have periods at their ends, a fact which she mentioned on Twitter. However, in this comic, she uses periods, so her previous periodlessness might be a coincidence and not a trait of her character on xkcd.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Language]]

2381: The True Name of the Bear

2021-04-28T00:40:45Z

172.70.35.17: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2381
| date = November 4, 2020
| title = The True Name of the Bear
| image = the_true_name_of_the_bear.png
| titletext = Thank you to Gretchen McCulloch for fielding this question, and sorry that as a result the world's foremost internet linguist has been devoured by the brown one. She will be missed.
}}

==Explanation==
The Canadian Internet linguist {{w|Gretchen McCulloch}} [https://twitter.com/gretchenamcc/status/1113195661275611137 tweeted] about [https://www.charlierussellbears.com/LinguisticArchaeology.html the theory] that the word for bear became taboo in some branches of Indo-European languages - notably the Germanic one - and it was replaced by euphemisms. In the Germanic branch, the euphemism may have been "the brown one," and thus the modern word "bear" (derived from Germanic "beran") would more literally translate into the color "brown" rather than the animal.

The Indoeuropean root for bear is *rkto-, which has been inferred from modern languages that still use a word derived from it. In the comic, McCulloch applies {{w|Sound change|sound shifting}} laws to it to guess how it would have evolved in English had it not been superceded, but saying it seems to actually summon a bear, showing that abandoning that word was a fairly wise move for the Germanic language family.

Interestingly enough, the hypothesized word “arth” is the same as the Welsh and Cornish for the word “bear.” Welsh belongs to the Celtic language family, which is one of the Indo-European branches that still uses a word derived from *rkto-, as do the Italic (Romance), Greek and Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit) branches, while Germanic, Slavic and Baltic branches abandoned it for different euphemisms. Another Indo-European language where the word for bear is very close to this extrapolation is Armenian, where it's written [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/արջ արջ] and pronounced “artch”.

Depending on how one takes the concept of "saying a true name", {{tvtropes|FridgeLogic|fridge logic}} issues arise with this comic, adding to the absurdity of the situation depicted. If saying the "true" name (or any name derived from that name) summons the bear, how do Celtic and Romance language speakers (e.g. Italians saying Orso, Spaniards saying Oso, etc) get away with saying it without running into the same issue? Perhaps the bears only respond to certain languages, but that seems unlikely unless the words mutated specifically into some special sound bears responded to, since the languages that the bears would be prompted by would have developed thousands of years apart in time. An arcane form of {{w|geofencing}}, and/or a {{w|geas}} firmly tied to some prior mystically-established meta-contextualising, might limit such otherworldly 'magic' and explain why more mundane science and logic is usually unworried by these kinds of phenomena being inadvertently triggered.{{Citation needed}}

Joking aside, there can be actual good reason to avoid saying bear. For example, maybe when someone had a good harvest bears would have a tendency to come into town to investigate or raid their food store. After some time, people might have developed a tendency to discuss bears and lock up their food store after a good harvest, and so if people overheard discussion of bears from their neighbors, they might have all locked down their food stores, and bears could have learned to key in on the behavior of everyone locking their food stores to actually come into the city and raid them more in response{{Citation needed}} because they would have learned that people only lock up their food when they have a lot of it. Thus in a roundabout way, mentioning bears does summon bears.

Another possibility is that the "true name" of a bear is actually in a language the bear understands: possibly involving smells, body language, territorial or ecological interspecies behavior, and would actually reliably summon a bear because the person using it knew exactly what they were doing. Hunter-gatherers and very experienced trackers are known to interact with wildlife in such ways.{{Citation needed}} 

Use of true names appears to be [[1013: Wake Up Sheeple|highly effective in the xkcd universe, rather like a fairy tale]], and it is also {{tvtropes|IKnowYourTrueName|a common trope}} elsewhere. Some say a true name contains clear meaning of who someone or something really is. In a competitive culture like ours, this could give others power over you, "profiling" you to be able to predict you and what you do.

Internet Linguist Gretchen McCulloch (or her ghost) certainly found it effective, but [https://twitter.com/GretchenAMcC/status/1324044826145378304 may reflect her extreme susceptibility to internet leakage].

The title text states that the bear that Gretchen summoned ate her, which means that Ponytail's attempt to stop Gretchen from summoning the bear was justified. However, the title text uses the phrase "brown one" instead of the word "bear". While saying the true name of the bear apparently does prompt a bear attack, as discussed in the comic, bear is not actually this true name, so it could be said safely without prompting a bear attack, as the characters did in the first few panels, so Randall could have used the word bear in the title text without being killed by a bear. In addition, while ''saying'' the true name of the bear apparently summons one, ''typing'' it probably does not (unless a bear is already close enough to be able to read the computer screen, in which case one already has to worry about a bear), so Randall could have typed "arth" without causing danger to himself. However, maybe Randall choose to avoid typing "arth" in the title text out of concern for the safety of people who cannot see or are hard of sight who would use screen-readers to say the title text out loud. Of course they would have a problem if they had a program that could read text from the comic, or if they went to explain xkcd and got the transcript read out loud. So seems like this would not be his concern. Rather it may be seen as something one of the other people from the comic said later.

(An alterative theory is that Randall just thought "the brown one" sounded funnier than "bear."){{Citation needed}}

In [[2421: Tower of Babel]] a linguist that resembles Gretchen from this comic appears. Since that story takes palce in biblical time, it is not Gretchen, but obviously this is how linguists look in xkcd from now on.

==Transcript==
:[Megan walks in front the left, looking down at her phone. Cueball and Ponytail are standing next to each other.]
:Megan: Wow - according to the internet, we don't know the true name of the bear.
:Cueball: What?

:[Gretchen McCulloch, drawn with short, curly hair, comes on-panel from the right.]
:Megan: Apparently there was a superstition that saying its name would summon it. "Bear" and "bruin" mean "the brown one." Its actual name has been lost.
:Cueball: Wow.
:Ponytail: Gretchen, is this for real?

:[Zoom-in on Gretchen.]
:Gretchen: Well, sort of
:Gretchen: The Proto-Indo-European root was *rkto-
:Gretchen: It was lost in the Germanic languages like English, but survived elsewhere, e.g. Greek "arktos" and Latin "ursus"

:[Back to the second panel, with Megan holding her phone down, Ponytail with her hands in the air, and Gretchen with her hand on her chin.]
:Megan: So could we figure out what the word would have been in English?
:Gretchen: Hmm. I mean, we'll never know, but given Germanic sound shifts, a reasonable guess might be "arth"?
:Ponytail: ''No!!''

:[The panel zooms in again to Gretchen.]
:Ponytail (off-panel): ''Stop! AAAAA!''
:Gretchen: What??
:Ponytail (off-panel): Don't ''say'' it!

:[Ponytail is holding her palms out. Megan is no longer in the panel.]
:Ponytail: What have you ''done''?
:Off-panel noise: <big>'''''ROAR'''''</big>
:Gretchen: Oh
:Gretchen: Oh no

== Trivia ==
The last comic strip that ended with the words "Oh no" was [[2314: Carcinization]], which also featured an unfortunate occurrence involving an animal as its punchline when Cueball spontaneously transformed into a crab.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Animals]]

2450: Post Vaccine Social Scheduling

2021-04-15T02:54:54Z

172.70.35.17:

{{comic
| number = 2450
| date = April 15, 2021
| title = Post Vaccine Social Scheduling
| image = post_vaccine_social_scheduling.png
| titletext = As if these problems weren't NP-hard enough.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BIG CHUNGUS. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

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

{{comic discussion}}

Talk:2449: ISS Vaccine

2021-04-12T23:03:01Z

172.70.35.17:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_maneuver#Transfer_orbits (it'd be an amazing pun if COVID vaccinations were administered into your eyeballs! because the eyeholes in the skull are called orbits)[[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.17|172.70.35.17]] 23:03, 12 April 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2439: Solar System Cartogram

2021-03-24T14:14:09Z

172.70.35.17:

How do we know, that the "graph also ignores the International Space Station"? Maybe its crew just counts towards earth’s population, since that’s the planet it’s orbiting. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 08:25, 23 March 2021 (UTC)
:That was my thought as well, especially since in astronomical terms the ISS is incredibly close to earth. To quote the hover text from strip 1074: "[I]f the earth were a basketball, in 40 years no human's been more than half an inch from the surface." In contrast, the moon would be ~24 feet away at that scale.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.233|172.68.189.233]] 13:54, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

;Planet list seems incomplete
Where's Pluto? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.154|172.68.65.154]] 20:30, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
:Demoted to dwarf planet status in 2006, to the continued frustration of people like myself. [[User:Captain Video|Captain Video]] ([[User talk:Captain Video|talk]]) 20:33, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
::If the biggest Kuiper Belt object is a planet, the biggest Asteroid Belt object (Ceres) should be one too. They're both dwarf planets. Ceres was also considered a planet upon discovery until the rest of the similar-looking belt around it was discovered. [[User:Zowayix|Zowayix]] ([[User talk:Zowayix|talk]]) 00:24, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
::: if dwarf planets count as 'planets', sailor moon would last centuries[[User:Hiihaveanaccount|Hiihaveanaccount]] ([[User talk:Hiihaveanaccount|talk]]) 16:13, 22 March 2021 (UTC)
:::Okay. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.186|172.69.34.186]] 02:11, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
::::See [[473: Still Raw]]--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:31, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
::::: The Pluto thing is just never going to go away. The IAU is in ego lock about how bad this decision was. "Clearing the neighborhood" serves no scientific value whatsoever. Supporters I've asked can't even articulate how big Pluto's neighborhood actually is. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.106|162.158.75.106]] 12:55, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
:::::: There's no need of a precise definition. [https://www.quora.com/According-to-the-IAU-definition-how-big-is-Plutos-neighborhood-If-it-were-scaled-to-the-same-size-as-Mercurys-neighborhood-would-Pluto-then-be-a-planet/answer/Milan-Minic-2] The difference between a planet and a dwarf planet in terms of cleaning their neighborhood is like comparing a pebble to a mountain, they simply belong to different classes. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.89.145|162.158.89.145]] 20:28, 21 March 2021 (UTC)
::::::: That is actually the discussion I was thinking of. OP says what it ISN'T, but never really defines what it is. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.57.40|172.68.57.40]] 17:36, 22 March 2021 (UTC)
:::::: But Neptune hasn't cleared its neighborhood either, Pluto crosses Neptune's path.
::::::: Does the massive amount of space junk orbiting The Earth count as "not clearing the neighborhood", thereby denying it planet status? [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 02:22, 23 March 2021 (UTC)
::::::::If the junk is orbiting a planet then I think it counts as having "cleared the neighborhood" otherwise anything with a moon couldn't be a planet; objects not cleared would be those with their own orbit around the sun rather than being attached to the planet's orbit. Of course I'm not an astronomer/astrophysicist, so take what I say with a grain of salt.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.35.17|172.70.35.17]] 14:14, 24 March 2021 (UTC)
::::::: Pluto is in 3:2 resonance with Neptune [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_resonance], so its orbit derives from Neptune's. [[User:DKMell|DKMell]] ([[User talk:DKMell|talk]]) 18:31, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

What about exoplanets? [[User:Wilh3lm|Wilh3lm]] ([[User talk:Wilh3lm|talk]]) 20:49, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
:They're not in our solar system. [[User:Bubblegum|bubblegum]]-[[User_talk:Bubblegum|talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Bubblegum|contribs]] 20:57, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
::We should rectify that ASAP! A few more planets slotted between/woven through the current set would make for some interesting possibilities... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.207|141.101.99.207]] 22:52, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
:::Yes, interesting in the "ancient Chinese curse" way: despite most of solar system being empty, you would need to be VERY careful to fit even single planet inside without risking collision. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 04:31, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
::::We'll never know for sure without trying, right? ;p [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.22|141.101.98.22]] 22:34, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
:::::Oh, I'm sure with the price of real estate in solar system going up, someone is going to try sooner or later. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 03:10, 24 March 2021 (UTC)

Surprised no one has gotten technical and talked about how Earth is not drawn to be 7.8 billion times larger than the others (which would be around 300,000px wide) , meaning it's still off the same way other depictions tend to be. [[User:Trlkly|Trlkly]] ([[User talk:Trlkly|talk]]) 05:51, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
:Maybe it's a logarithmic cartogram. Log scales are generally needed when differences in sizes are so vast. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 06:01, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
::The dots are dimensionless, thus have zero size according to their population. Only exception is Mars, but with two it would still almost be zero size and thus just a dot. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:31, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
::Dots are used to represent points, which are objects of size zero. The Earth and its 7.8 billion people could be any size at all and the other planets should still just be dots. (Well I guess if you scaled Earth up far enough, Mars would become bigger than a dot.) [[User:DKMell|DKMell]] ([[User talk:DKMell|talk]]) 18:31, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

Needs to be amended to note that this reflects only HUMAN life detected on these planets. Just because we haven't found any yet doesn't mean that Jupiter might not be housing billions of Jovians, or Mars isn't teeming with Martians. [[User:RAGBRAIvet|RAGBRAIvet]] ([[User talk:RAGBRAIvet|talk]]) 06:53, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
:Well there is no evidence of any lifeforms in the solar system beyond Earth. It talks about Persons in the title text, thus it needs to be intelligent to have that label. And thus animals would not count. So until we have evidence of aliens on the other planets, or until we inhabit them, their population would be zero. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:31, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
::Remember, "intelligent" = capable of mass producing extinction level weapons, and stupid enough that they know they will push the button one day.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.174|108.162.237.174]] 00:52, 21 March 2021 (UTC)
:At this point, Martians would need to be very actively hiding to not be discovered. However, yeah, there are definitely places in solar system where whole civilization could be thriving without being found by us, and Jupiter would definitely be one of them. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 03:10, 24 March 2021 (UTC)

;Bad map projection?
IMHO, this also qualify as kind of a [[:Category:Bad_Map_Projections|bad map projection]] (in the wider sense of a population density-anamorphic cartogram) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.77.160|141.101.77.160]] 21:11, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
:No, it is not a map at all. But you could mention in the explanation that it has similarity to bad maps projections. But this one is not actually bad, it is technically correct, it is just useless. Also removed the map category as there is not map in this comic! It is a globe. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:31, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
:: How do you tell the difference between a picture of a globe and a picture of a map? In any case a picture of a globe is a map with an orthographic projections. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.71|172.69.63.71]] 19:08, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
::: At least mention that Randall has previously published several distorted maps that are actually useful. E.g. https://xkcd.com/2399/ But I think it is a map (of the solar system). [[User:Gvanrossum|Gvanrossum]] ([[User talk:Gvanrossum|talk]]) 23:59, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
::::It's a diagram. Not sure it qualifies as a map. The relationship between features (planets) is purely sequential, and (however much I use Perl's ''map {func($_)} @list'' operation, which derives more from the pure mathematical usage) I expect my maps to have slightly more than 1D of layout to them, whatever other distortions they display/don't avoid. There are indeed 'strip maps' of roads/routes pulled straight, but they are mostly called "straight line diagrams" anyway (or contour/slope diagrams using the route as the cross-section path, so 2D in a perpendicular variation). [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.207|141.101.99.207]] 03:38, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

If the explanation is going to mention electoral maps, would it make sense to include [[2399: 2020 Election Map]] and [[1939: 2016 Election Map]]? [[User:Aerin|Aerin]] ([[User talk:Aerin|talk]]) 00:03, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

Does anyone else find it strange that the title text explicitly states "although that's not enough to make Mars more than a dot." It seems in keeping with XKCD humor just to leave it at "For sentimental reasons, every active Mars rover is counted as one person" and leave the reader to consider if that had any appreciable impact on the size it was drawn at. Perhaps it truly was only a sentimental gesture, and the point of the title text is simply to express his sadness that it didn't alter the size he was able to draw Mars at. --[[Special:Contributions/172.69.22.36|172.69.22.36]] 14:27, 21 March 2021 (UTC)
:Yes, I noticed that too. Unusually wordy for Randall. [[User:DKMell|DKMell]] ([[User talk:DKMell|talk]]) 18:31, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

Is anyone else pondering what he knows that we don't that mandate the planets even get a dot? What populations beside rovers get them represented at all? oh and do populations of moons get neglected or added to the total of their barycenter (which is usually inside and thus named after a planet)? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.143.76|172.68.143.76]] 19:16, 21 March 2021 (UTC)
: I think so, Brain, but where are we going to find rubber pants in our size? [[User:Cwallenpoole|Cwallenpoole]] ([[User talk:Cwallenpoole|talk]]) 18:00, 22 March 2021 (UTC)
:A point, which has size zero, is usually represented by a non-zero-size dot. [[User:DKMell|DKMell]] ([[User talk:DKMell|talk]]) 18:31, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

But [https://xkcd.com/482/] shows that there is life on moons of Jupiter and Saturn! So those dots need to be larger. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.37.44|172.68.37.44]] 15:18, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

Should the explanation really mention electoral maps? The joke is clearly about solar system maps comparing sizes of different planets, ignoring distance. [[User:Condor70|Condor70]] ([[User talk:Condor70|talk]]) 16:30, 22 March 2021 (UTC)

== Population Specific rather than Vote by County ==

Existing explanation is assuming that the joke is purely about the means of showing electoral votes by county regardless of population in terms of red/blue. There is no indication in comic or title text that this is the case. Instead, a more direct take on 2439 is that this is taking the population cartogram to the extreme level of the solar system. A good example of the world view population cartogram is [https://worldmapper.org/maps/grid-population-2020/ Population Year 2020 | Worldmapper]. In this view, regions with larger population densities are shown to be larger than rural areas, yet still having the general shape of continents. To correlate with this, in [https://worldmapper.org/maps/population-year-1/ Population Year 1] the comment is made "The estimated population of New Zealand was zero", yet New Zealand is still clearly visible on the map, just razer thin (to line up with a single dot for all of the other planets). With all of the above, I believe the paragraph relating 2439 to the US Election Vote by County views is not relevant to the comic, other than it being a misinterpretation of the comic. In terms of content, worldmapper.org content is CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, so the image could be included. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.132.69|172.68.132.69]] 20:58, 21 March 2021 (UTC)