explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2990: Late Cenozoic

2024-09-26T03:04:21Z

172.70.38.17:

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

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

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

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

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

-Thinking emoji- pretty sure the typical museum dino skeleton is 100% fossil free. I might recall the dino (and similar rareness of fossils) skeletons on display as cast plaster (of paris?). SDT [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.17|172.70.38.17]] 03:04, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

2826: Gold

2023-09-12T13:11:09Z

172.70.38.17: /* Explanation */ Nothing to do with astrology in the comic.

{{comic
| number = 2826
| date = September 8, 2023
| title = Gold
| image = gold_2x.png
| imagesize = 695x272px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It can be expensive to hire a professional spectroscopist for your wedding, but the quality of the spectra you get is worth it.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by neutron stars in a mostly-closed relationship! Do NOT anger them OR delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic depicts a seldom heard explanation of why {{w|gold}} is a common {{w|wedding ring}} material; that humans chose it due to its symbolism in reference to its creation. Gold, as the comic states, is most commonly created by {{w|r-process}} {{w|nucleosynthesis}} in the mergers of {{w|neutron star}}s; something which could be seen as analogous to a marriage. About 94% of the gold on Earth was created this way, with the rest made by {{w|supernova nucleosynthesis}}.[https://www.science.org/content/article/neutron-star-mergers-may-create-much-universe-s-gold][https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.05463] But gold was used in wedding rings before the discovery of how it was created, thus the joke.

Wedding receptions sometimes have a ''theme'', which is used to style the decorations and activities of the party. If the couple has a shared interest in something in popular culture (especially if this is how they met), they might use that as the theme. [[Megan]] suggests that "Binary Neutron Star Merger" would be a fun theme; this would probably only be true for astronomers or cosmologists.

[[Cueball]] adds that an activity at such a wedding would be ejecting the bouquet at relativistic speeds; this is a reference to the traditional activity of the bride throwing her bouquet into the crowd, and whoever catches it is predicted to be the next to get married. The collision of neutron stars ejects material with enormous amounts of energy. The ejected bouquet would therefore be traveling "{{w|Relativistic speed|relativistically}}" (i.e. at a high fraction of the speed of light). If you caught such a bouquet while at rest relative to the merger point, [https://what-if.xkcd.com/1 you would be destroyed by the energy], so everyone tries not to catch it in that fashion. Of course, as shown in the [[what if?]] link above, everyone in the room and the surroundings would be vaporized if such a feat was possible.

Continuing with the cosmological theme, the title text suggests that the wedding photographer would be a spectroscopist. {{w|Spectroscopy}}, which determines the composition of materials by splitting its light into a spectrum and analyzing the wavelengths that are strong and those that are missing, is a common way to study {{w|stars}}, {{w|nebulae}}, and other astronomical phenomena. After the relativistic bouquet was thrown, he would be able to make a nice spectroscopy of the entire wedding ceremony if he stood far enough away. He could, of course, not present it to the bride, as she was part of the light being emitted. On the other hand, neutron stars that get married like this also do not survive. And anyway that is also the case with lots of marriages.

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

:[Cueball holding some small sparkling thing, implied to be a gold wedding ring]
:Cueball: It kinda makes sense that we use gold for wedding rings.

:[Frame shifts to Cueball's head]
:Cueball: Because a lot of the universe's gold was probably produced by R-process nucleosynthesis when pairs of neutron stars spiraled together and merged.
:Cueball: So gold exists because two neutron stars got married.

:[Megan walks in from side towards Cueball]
:Megan: "Binary neutron star merger" would be a fun wedding theme.
:Cueball: Everyone has to try '''''not''''' to catch the relativistically-ejected bouquet.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Romance]]

Talk:2768: Definition of e

2023-04-27T12:24:38Z

172.70.38.17:

This is of course one way of arriving at the value of e: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant)#Compound_interest [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 03:55, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

I do not know who said that Miss Lenhard is after a dollar - but that is so not her![[User:Tier666|Tier666]] ([[User talk:Tier666|talk]]) 09:15, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

One explanation may be that Miss Lenhart is in a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes claim to offer unbelievably high returns that are actually paid by later investors, it will invariably crash, but by the time, the scammers will have vanished with the money. Here, Miss Lenhart effectively offers +172% annual returns, which is way above what a honest bank can offer, and she seems to push the student into investing, which is aligned with the Ponzi scheme goal of getting as many people to invest as possible. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.22.234|162.158.22.234]] 11:25, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Does anyone else see the buttons at the top as being weird? The first comic arrow is split into two buttons separated by a new line. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.17|172.70.38.17]] 12:24, 27 April 2023 (UTC)