2784: Drainage Basins

2023-06-03T09:03:50Z

172.70.85.137: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2784
| date = June 2, 2023
| title = Drainage Basins
| image = drainage_basins_2x.png
| imagesize = 659x500px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = After a pail of water was thrown on the Wicked Witch of the West outside Salt Lake City, Utah's Great Salt Lake was measured to be 7 parts per trillion witch by volume.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a LIQUID 90s KID. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
Alex Mack was the main character in the Nickelodeon show ''{{w|The Secret World of Alex Mack}}'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20120516025126/http://articles.latimes.com/1994-10-02/news/tv-45351_1_alex-mack] who developed superpowers after being drenched by an experimental substance. One of these is the ability to turn into a puddle of liquid.

A {{w|drainage basin}} is an area of land where all flowing water converges to one or more outlets to the same body of water. A depiction of drainage basins is a {{w|Drainage divide|watershed map}}, which for the United States is shown in the comic.

When Randall sees a map of the US's major drainage basins, he thinks of Alex turning into liquid and flowing as part of the basin she happens to be in at the time.

The title text refers to the {{w|Wicked Witch of the West}}, a character from ''{{w|The Wonderful Wizard of Oz}}''. When a bucket of water is thrown on her, she dissolves into a puddle. If this happens in the {{w|Great Basin}}, she'll flow into Utah's {{w|Great Salt Lake}}. If its dissolved particles are measured, a tiny fraction will be witch. Seven trillionths of its 18.93 cubic km volume is about 130 liters, which is approximately twice the volume of a typical human being — Randall is likely including the Witch's sister, the Wicked Witch of the East as well. Randall does however assume that Oz is somewhere within the Great Basin. The {{w|Land of Oz}} is depicted to somewhere else entirely, surrounded by desert and thus perhaps has its own salt-lake basin(s); but famously it is not in Kansas, from which any witch-water would have ultimately flowed down to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:US Drainage Basins [Crossed Out]
:<span style="color:red">Where Alex Mack Will End Up</span> [Below, in red]

:[Map of the United States, with the following drainage basins labeled:]
:Pacific Ocean
:Great Basin
:Arctic Ocean
:Various Basins
:Hudson Bay
:Gulf of Mexico
:Atlantic Ocean

:[Caption below the panel:]
:How I still think of these maps, deep down

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Comics with red corrections]]
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:US maps]]
[[Category:Fiction]]

Talk:2780: Physical Quantities

2023-05-25T20:41:28Z

172.70.85.137:

Planck Length here actually refers to the length of Planck himself. The same may apply to other names. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 03:02, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

I wonder if this is alluding to the [[wikipedia:Smoot|Smoot]], a unit of measure devised by MIT students to represent the height of Oliver R. Smoot. Probably worth a mention in the description nonetheless. [[User:Trimeta|Trimeta]] ([[User talk:Trimeta|talk]]) 03:45, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Hawking radiation: ~100 W (through heat)

Planking is a thing.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planking_(fad) One pretends that one is a board, or plank. Are some funny pics. The opposite of planking would be good god how? How can even a cat!?!! [Special:Contributions/172.69.58.161|172.69.58.161]] 06:26, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Hubble length is {{w|Hubble Space Telescope|13.2 m}}. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.64|141.101.98.64]] 10:30, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

The m³ unit for Broca's area is surely a typo, right? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.47|162.158.94.47]] 14:55, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

Just a couple of others: 1 Watt is what it takes to invent the condensing steam engine and Euler's number doesn't exist, because he died before telephones were invented. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.45|172.69.247.45]] 15:08, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:There are lots of <someone>'s Number constants. We could have an entire phonebook of these. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:53, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
::I tried phoning Graham's Number, once. I'm still not yet finished dialling! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.186|172.70.91.186]] 19:22, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:Chandresekhar's Limit = 3 pints? [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 17:53, 25 May 2023 (UTC)
:Don't forget that numbers are now [[2721|Euler letters]]! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.137|172.70.85.137]] 20:41, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2784: Drainage Basins

Talk:2780: Physical Quantities