explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1731: Wrong

2024-03-19T06:46:54Z

172.70.86.148: Undo revision 337661 by 172.71.158.35 (talk) That would be incorrect markup (whether or not it's supposed to be nowikied to make it a 'visible comment-tagging').

{{comic
| number = 1731
| date = September 9, 2016
| title = Wrong
| image = wrong.png
| titletext = Hang on, I just remembered another thing I'm right about. See...
}}

==Explanation==
All matter that we encounter in everyday life is normal matter and not {{w|antimatter}}. Atoms, while once when they were named believed to be the smallest unit of matter, are now known to be made up of {{w|protons}}, {{w|neutrons}} and {{w|electrons}}. Protons and neutrons are in turn made up of {{w|quarks}}, which are fundamental particles (meaning not made of other particles). Quarks come in six different "{{w|Flavour (particle physics)|flavours}}" (up, down, top, bottom, charm, and strange), with protons and neutrons being made of up and down quarks. Each flavour also has a corresponding {{w|antiparticle}}, an antiquark, which would make up antiprotons and antineutrons.

[[White Hat]] and [[Megan]] appear to be discussing the topics of antimatter and subatomic particles. White Hat makes the assertion that we (referring to people and objects) are made partially of antimatter, because, as he claims, a proton (one of the particles which make up all matter) is made of two quarks and an antiquark. In fact, protons are made up of two up quarks and a down quark, which are all not antiquarks. He is likely making the mistake of mixing up the "up" and "down" flavours of quarks (which can be seen as complementary flavours of quarks) and mistaking them to be mutual antiparticles. He continues to elaborate on his idea by mentioning neutrons, which are made of two down quarks and an up quark.

When Megan (accurately) doubts his claim, White Hat takes out his smartphone to look it up, in order to show Megan that he is correct. However, upon researching online, he realizes that he was, in fact, '''wrong''' (hence the title of the comic). Not wanting to admit being incorrect or yield his position in the discussion, he convinces himself that he wasn't actually wrong, as depicted by his mentally erasing the realization that he was wrong. Instead, he completely changes the topic to try and re-frame it so that he is not wrong. In this case, he circles back and criticizes the entire scientific concept of "particles", which can be seen as an attempt at a {{w|straw man}} on his part. Presumably, he will go on to explain how humans are not made of particles and quarks, but of waves.

It is rather common to be unwilling to admit fault (the whole topic of this comic) and to instead try to maintain an air of infallibility and intelligence. Some people are just too prideful to admit that they are inherently fallible. White Hat is one of those people, as depicted in several of his earlier appearances (see [[#Trivia|trivia section]]). [[Randall]] uses this comic to criticize people who are unable to put aside their ego and re-assess what they know in the face of empirical data. Such thinking flies directly against scientific rigor (adding an extra layer of irony to the situation, since White Hat and Megan are discussing a ''scientific'' topic). This method had already been called ''wrong'' in [[803: Airfoil]].

White Hat's new topic, where he can be right, includes the {{w|quantum field theory}}, a very complicated field, which it is likely one Megan is not well versed in (inferred by the fact that she was not quite sure about the anti-quarks). So he may be raising the topic because he believes she will not understand it sufficiently to refute his correctness. Megan, however, recognizes exactly what he is trying to do, and can only sigh in response to his failed efforts. In the QFT, particles are often described as {{w|Resonance (particle physics)|resonances}} or {{w|excited state|excited states}} of the underlying physical field, in the same way as photons may be thought of as excitations in the electromagnetic field; in this way White Hat appears to be dismissing his earlier errors by implying that particles are merely an effect of something more complex, of which he can demonstrate his knowledge. Furthermore, in quantum field theory quarks do not exist in the conventional sense.

In the title text, White Hat just remembers another thing he's right about. This demonstrates even more clearly that he is not interested in a discussion on the merits of a topic, but instead is seeking only recognition and validation for being right. This bears some similarity to [[386: Duty Calls]], in which [[Cueball]] stays up late correcting someone on the Internet, and [[2051: Bad Opinions]], where Cueball actively seeks out people with bad opinions for him to correct.

White Hat may have incorrectly remembered that, while the valence quarks in a proton are all matter, quantum field theory says that protons also contain an indefinite number of "virtual" anti-quarks, quarks, and gluons. See this video ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LraNu_78sCwv What are Quarks?]'' about this. His final comment could be referring to the ontological debate over whether virtual particles are in some sense real or only an artefact of perturbation theory. Alternatively, he may have been confused by the fact that negatively charged quarks contribute negatively to baryon number. <nowiki></nowiki>

==Transcript==
:[White Hat is walking beside Megan, index finger extended]
:White Hat: Really, we're all made of antimatter. A proton consists of two quarks and an antiquark.
:Megan: ...I don't think that's right.

:[White Hat stops to take out his smartphone tapping on it. Megan stops and turns towards him.]
:White Hat: Sure it is. Neutrons are, too.
:Megan: Do you mean "up" and "down" quarks? I think antiquarks are a different thing.
:White Hat: No, let me show you...
:Tap
:Tap

:[Zooming in on White Hat's head, while he is holding his phone up looking at it. He is thinking as shown with a bubbly thought bubble.]
:White Hat (thinking): I'm...wrong?

:[White Hat has lowered the phone. He is still thinking the same but the text has been scribbled out.]
:White Hat (thinking): I'm...wrong?

:[White Hat purges the thought from his mind]
:White Hat (thinking): ...

:[Similar setting as in the first panel, but in a full row wide panel, and White Hat is still holding his smartphone]
:White Hat: Really, the whole idea of "particles" is inaccurate. These are abstractions arising from quantum field theory, but what most people don't realize is...
:Megan: *Sigh*

==Trivia==
*This comic could be seen as a follow up to [[1605: DNA]]. Going back through the last White Hat appearances it turns out that DNA, 13 White Hat comics back, is actually the last where White Hat has been the fall guy. For instance he has the opposite role in [[1640: Super Bowl Context]], and he is not "the stupid guy" in the comics between that and this one, but often just another guy than Cueball. Further back in [[1255: Columbus]] he was again the fall guy, and again it reminds a bit about this comic. Actually Megan even begins that comic with a *sigh* like she finished this one.
*Quarks are also referenced in [[1418: Horse]], [[1621: Fixion]] and the first time they were mentioned, in [[474: Turn-On]], all six flavors were also mentioned.
*Antimatter is also referenced in [[683: Science Montage]], [[826: Guest Week: Zach Weiner (SMBC)]] and [[1621: Fixion]] as well as being the subject of the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' article ''{{what if|114|Antimatter}}''. It was also mentioned in another ''what if?'': ''{{what if|79|Lake Tea}}''.
*A similar thought process where earlier thoughts are scribbled out was used by Cueball in [[1650: Baby]], but for different reasons.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Smartphones]]

2898: Orbital Argument

2024-02-26T13:03:14Z

172.70.86.148: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2898
| date = February 23, 2024
| title = Orbital Argument
| image = orbital_argument_2x.png
| imagesize = 448x323px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "Some people say light is waves, and some say it's particles, so I bet light is some in-between thing that's both wave and particle depending on how you look at it. Am I right?" "YES, BUT YOU SHOULDN'T BE!"
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an ARGUMENTATIVE ORBITAL ELEMENT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, [[White Hat]] is using the {{w|Argument to moderation|middle ground fallacy}} to try to make a compromise between the positions of [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]].

Cueball appears to be asserting a {{w|geocentric}} viewpoint, whilst Megan adheres to a {{w|heliocentric}} one, both of which are flawed descriptions of the way things are, but the latter is much closer to reality. White Hat, however, considers it {{wiktionary|politic#Adjective|politic}} to 'split the difference' and declares his intention to compromise with a 'middle' option, to try to uncritically please both parties. (Though it's probable that he may instead just equally annoy them both!)

On a naive reading, which imagines a point of common orbit midway between the bodies, his thesis is simply wrong. However, by one way of looking at it, it happens that he is also correct. Because two bodies exert equal but opposite gravitational forces on each other, each orbits around the average location of the other, and therefore they both orbit a common center. This {{w|Barycenter (astronomy)|barycenter}} is located somewhere between the centers of the two bodies; the distance of each body's center of mass from the barycenter is proportional to the other body's mass. This is most apparent in systems where the two bodies have similar masses, but it is present to an extent in all orbital pairs, even when one body is far more massive than the other. For this reason, Earth does not orbit the center of the stationary Sun as described by the heliocentric model. However, the Earth-Sun barycenter is only slightly different from the Sun's own true center, still well within the Sun. It is around this which the Sun wobbles, in contrast to the way the Earth orbits around this unequally proportioned midpoint.

The Earth-Moon barycenter is located approximately ¾ of the way from Earth's center of mass to its surface, towards the Moon's center of mass. Our tidal bulges (oceanic and otherwise) occur along that line. One bulge is towards the Moon because of the gravitational attraction, and the other is in the opposite direction, by centrifugal force from the Earth's rotation around the barycenter.

The equivalent Jupiter-Sun barycenter, meanwhile, is located just ''above'' the 'surface' of the Sun due to the masses involved being not as different (but still significantly so), and the much greater distance between them. As each of the planets and the Sun are simultaneously orbiting/'being orbited' (and every planet also measurably pulls on every other, etc, even discounting every smaller and/or more distant body in the universe), the combined solar-system's barycenter is a less simply-defined point (that being more likely to be within the Sun, at any given point of time), which can often be considered to more simply average out to "<each planet> orbits the Sun" for most purposes, and Cueball is therefore ''least'' correct, and it would be a false solution to give his worldview an equivalence of validity.

That White Hat has worded his compromise solution in a way that (arguably) encompasses the deeper truth of the barycentric viewpoint is not treated as justifying his mediating approach. It is clearly understood (by someone who seems to understand the complexities, e.g. a {{w|Randall Munroe#NASA|NASA physicist}}) that White Hat's 'successful' conclusion is just accidental. Which is vexatious. This seems to be a case of a {{w|Gettier problem}}: White Hat reaches a true statement via unjustified logic.

The title text extends the principle of the comic's astronomical viewpoint down to the correspondingly opposing 'quantum world'. For various well-studied reasons, light is often described ''either'' as particles ''or'' as waves. White Hat's approach would be to give both viewpoints equal credit and suggest a compromising middle-ground explanation. In this case, also, he would have the {{w|Wave–particle duality|correct answer}} but, in the continuing view of an increasingly exasperated witness to his chronic {{w|False balance|"half-and-half"ism}}, not through actually correct reasoning.

Another example of the middle ground fallacy was used in [[690: Semicontrolled Demolition]], although in that case the person offering the compromise solution was not portrayed as getting the right answer by accident.

Orbits of celestial bodies are quantified using a set of parameters called orbital elements. Some of these parameters are commonly known as arguments, such as the {{w|Argument of periapsis}}. However, these kind of arguments tend to lead to consensus rather than disagreements. Independent measurements of the arguments might indeed be combined by taking the mean (to discover the middle ground).

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[From left to right, Cueball, White Hat and Megan standing. Cueball and Megan are arguing. Cueball is raising a finger while Megan's arms are outstretched. White Hat stands between them, both hands out in an equivocal gesture.]
:Cueball: The sun orbits the earth!
:Megan: The earth orbits the sun!
:White Hat: When two people disagree, the truth is always somewhere in the middle. Maybe the earth and the sun orbit a common center!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:It's annoying when people are right by accident.
{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Logic]]
[[Category:Compromise]]

2897: Light Leap Years

2024-02-23T10:05:31Z

172.70.86.148: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 2897
| date = February 21, 2024
| title = Light Leap Years
| image = light_leap_years_2x.png
| imagesize = 288x389px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = When Pope Gregory XIII briefly shortened the light-year in 1582, it led to navigational chaos and the loss of several Papal starships.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by A FLEET OF PAPAL STARSHIPS FROM 1582 - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The comic portrays [[Cueball]] and [[Ponytail]] updating astronomical distances in some sort of database, noting how long and unpleasant the process is; the caption reveals that the reason is that {{w|leap year}}s "make light-years 0.27% longer" (366/365 = 1.0027397...). This makes the distance to Alpha Centauri "0.27% shorter". 2024 is a leap year in the Gregorian calendar, and leap day (February 29) was just over one week away when this comic was released.

The joke of this strip is based on the fact that "one year" isn't a precise unit of measurement: there have been different definitions, evolving over time, of what constitutes a year. The {{w|Gregorian calendar}} (the one most commonly used in modern times) includes a system of leap years in which an additional day is added every fourth year (with some exceptions) to make up for incompatibilities between day and year cycles. This temporarily changes the length of a year from 365 to 366 days.

A {{w|light year}} is a unit of distance, commonly used in astronomy, equal to the distance light travels in a vacuum in one year; the year used is the {{w|Julian year (astronomy)|Julian year}}, or 365.25 days. This results in a light year which is standardized at 9,460,730,472,580.8 km, no matter how long the calendar year may be. However, in this comic, a light year has been defined based on the length of the ''current'' year, and consequently becomes longer during leap years, meaning databases with astronomical distances have to be adjusted. Thankfully, most systems of measurement do not change continually, and even those those that do (eg. DST) usually are setup to automatically update when necessary.

The title text jokes that {{w|Pope Gregory XIII}}, the originator of the Gregorian calendar, "briefly shortened the light-year in 1582." What really occurred in 1582 was that the Pope decided to advance the previously Julian calendar by 10 days to make up for an accumulated excess of past leap days and bring the subsequent Gregorian one more into line with astronomical measurements. Not all places went with the change, at that time. Some of the later adopters had to {{w|List of adoption dates of the Gregorian calendar by country|skip yet other days once they did}}, while others continue to use a calendar with an offset factor. In the world of the comic, this change led to "navigational chaos and the loss of several Papal starships". This is of course ludicrous since there were no (known earthly) starships in the 16th century, there has never been a "Papal starship",{{Citation Needed}} and the light-year wasn't developed as a unit of measurement until 1838. Indeed, it wasn't known that the speed of light is finite until {{w|Rømer's determination of the speed of light}} in 1676. Navigational chaos ''has'' been a cause of shipwrecks, notably the {{w|Scilly naval disaster of 1707}} in which 4 ships were lost and over 1,400 sailors died.

The joke is that the evolving and somewhat loose and changing definitions of early calendars had significant impacts on the units of measurement we still use today. Such changes did serve to catalyze political and religious conflicts in some instances, and raised temporary issues around matters such as taxes, rents, etc., but as technology has advanced and become increasingly reliant on precise and consistent measurements, they could be significantly more disastrous.

The values given for Proxima Centauri's distance from the Sun, 4.2377 light-leap-years and 4.2493 light-nonleap-years, are consistent with a distance of 4.2464 actual light-years as described by the {{w|International Astronomical Union}}, which is only minutely different from 4.2465 light-years, the value given by {{w|Gaia catalogues|Gaia Data Release 3}} in 2020. Though tiny on an interstellar scale, the difference between 4.2377 and 4.2493 light-years, 0.0116 light years, equals 109.7 billion km (68.2 billion miles), about 730 times the average distance between the Earth and the sun (150 million km or 93 million miles).

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting at a desk with a laptop on it and leaning to the back of his office chair, while having his other hand on the laptop. He is looking at Ponytail standing behind him. The text from the laptop screen is shown above it, indicated with a zigzag line.]
:Cueball: It took until February, but I finally got all the distances updated!
:Ponytail: I really wish we didn't have to do this.
:[Laptop screen:]
:Proxima Centauri
:Distance: <s>4.2493 ly</s> 4.2377 ly

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Astronomers hate leap years because they make light-years 0.27% longer.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Calendar]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

Talk:2835: Factorial Numbers

2023-09-30T15:14:02Z

172.70.86.148: erroneous pre-submit editing

Number systems aren't real math, at least not serious math. They're an affectation. 99.9% of math is number-system-independent, so nobody should care about them. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.108|172.70.46.108]] 22:30, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

: Of course it's "real math." There aren't that many applications, but so what? Math isn't about applications. Besides, there are some. Maybe not specifically for factorial base, but for some place systems. The only thing "dirty" about decimal is the arbitrariness of ten. Considering place systems in general is just considering special kinds of sums. Certainly, "serious" mathematicians are interested in proving numbers normal in specific bases, or in every base. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 01:55, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

: A great deal of interesting maths can be found in and around the various arrangements of digits in numbers systems, surely. AzureArmageddon 07:54, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

I thought this was a complete joke, until coming here. The "factorial number system" exists?! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.249|162.158.90.249]] 22:38, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

I wanted to add a link to a converter, but the one I found is https://www.dcode.fr/factorial-base which is quite ugly with lots of adds and a bit counter-intuitive.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 23:42, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

This needs simplifying a bit. Came here because I had no idea what was going on, and after a quick scroll through the prose, the main thing I learned was "it's 'cause you're dumb". May be true but I still don't get what Randall's factorial system is....[[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 01:25, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

Factorial base also allows to finitely represent all rational numbers - no constant base is capable of that! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.238.76|172.68.238.76]] 01:55, 30 September 2023 (UTC)
: Unless you use a division sign. But yes, only radix numerals of a variable base with infinite series of factors of every prime can even theoretically finitely represent arbitrary rationals without invoking existential quantifiers. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.26|172.71.147.26]] 06:43, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

I feel like Michael when Oscar is trying to explain what a “surplus” is.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.241|162.158.186.241]] 04:12, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

== The warning is complete nonsense, just remove it ==

bots cant be escorted out of somewhere just remove the stupid warning [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.109|162.158.203.109]] 04:28, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

: The nonsense is part of the fun. AzureArmageddon 07:52, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

::im deleting it

== The "adic" part of factor-adic numbers ==

It's not explicitly mentioned in the comic but the "adic" in the name "Factor''adic''™" implies that the number system extends the factorial number system by being in some way "adic" as discussed in [https://youtu.be/tRaq4aYPzCc this YouTube video on the Veritasium channel] and so negative numbers would have a truly wacky representation that violates the intent of the title text's pronouncement by requiring an infinitely long representation requiring infinite digits (1, 2, 3, 4, ..., 9, A, B, C, ..., ''infinite digits''). AzureArmageddon 08:00, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

== Title text ==
The title text references that 10! = 3,628,800 (base 10), and so for numbers greater than or equal to that, you would have to add a tenth digit in order to display them in this system. The question is asking whether you would then proceed to using letters of the alphabet such as one does in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal hexadecimal] to which the reply is that numbers above this amount are simply illegal. The trouble comes when you try to write down the number 10 * 10! = 36,288,000 (base 10) in this system. For 10!, the notation is 1000000000 , so 9 * 10! would be 9000000000, and then to get 10 * 10!, you would have to write A000000000 because 10 * 10! < 11!. In fact, since this is the first "illegal" number, you could "legally" allow up to 10 * 10! - 1 = 36,287,999 (base 10) in the system (which would be written as 9987654321 = 9 * 10! + 9 * 9! + 8 * 8! + ... + 2 * 1! + 1 * 1!) without the need to introduce any letters. I also want to point out that the reference in the comic to 9 being reserved for big numbers is due to no number needing a 9 to write it down in this system until 9 * 9! = 3265920 which is written 900000000. Since numbers above 10! are not allowed, this means that only the 9! digit is legally allowed to hold a 9, and it only applies to numbers in that high range of 3265920 to 3628799.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.230|172.71.166.230]] 15:01, 30 September 2023 (UTC)
:I feel the current in-Explanation explanation about that already covers this, with the addition of the validity that the digit that could need to be >9 could still be any digit 0..9 without needing to invoke the 11th digit. (Maybe a few tweaks, but not sure what you're trying to add here.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.148|172.70.86.148]] 15:13, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2835: Factorial Numbers

2023-09-30T15:13:09Z

172.70.86.148:

Number systems aren't real math, at least not serious math. They're an affectation. 99.9% of math is number-system-independent, so nobody should care about them. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.108|172.70.46.108]] 22:30, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

: Of course it's "real math." There aren't that many applications, but so what? Math isn't about applications. Besides, there are some. Maybe not specifically for factorial base, but for some place systems. The only thing "dirty" about decimal is the arbitrariness of ten. Considering place systems in general is just considering special kinds of sums. Certainly, "serious" mathematicians are interested in proving numbers normal in specific bases, or in every base. [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 01:55, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

: A great deal of interesting maths can be found in and around the various arrangements of digits in numbers systems, surely. AzureArmageddon 07:54, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

I thought this was a complete joke, until coming here. The "factorial number system" exists?! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.90.249|162.158.90.249]] 22:38, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

I wanted to add a link to a converter, but the one I found is https://www.dcode.fr/factorial-base which is quite ugly with lots of adds and a bit counter-intuitive.--[[User:Pere prlpz|Pere prlpz]] ([[User talk:Pere prlpz|talk]]) 23:42, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

This needs simplifying a bit. Came here because I had no idea what was going on, and after a quick scroll through the prose, the main thing I learned was "it's 'cause you're dumb". May be true but I still don't get what Randall's factorial system is....[[User:Alcatraz ii|Alcatraz ii]] ([[User talk:Alcatraz ii|talk]]) 01:25, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

Factorial base also allows to finitely represent all rational numbers - no constant base is capable of that! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.238.76|172.68.238.76]] 01:55, 30 September 2023 (UTC)
: Unless you use a division sign. But yes, only radix numerals of a variable base with infinite series of factors of every prime can even theoretically finitely represent arbitrary rationals without invoking existential quantifiers. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.147.26|172.71.147.26]] 06:43, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

I feel like Michael when Oscar is trying to explain what a “surplus” is.[[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.241|162.158.186.241]] 04:12, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

== The warning is complete nonsense, just remove it ==

bots cant be escorted out of somewhere just remove the stupid warning [[Special:Contributions/162.158.203.109|162.158.203.109]] 04:28, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

: The nonsense is part of the fun. AzureArmageddon 07:52, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

::im deleting it

== The "adic" part of factor-adic numbers ==

It's not explicitly mentioned in the comic but the "adic" in the name "Factor''adic''™" implies that the number system extends the factorial number system by being in some way "adic" as discussed in [https://youtu.be/tRaq4aYPzCc this YouTube video on the Veritasium channel] and so negative numbers would have a truly wacky representation that violates the intent of the title text's pronouncement by requiring an infinitely long representation requiring infinite digits (1, 2, 3, 4, ..., 9, A, B, C, ..., ''infinite digits''). AzureArmageddon 08:00, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

== Title text ==
The title text references that 10! = 3,628,800 (base 10), and so for numbers greater than or equal to that, you would have to add a tenth digit in order to display them in this system. The question is asking whether you would then proceed to using letters of the alphabet such as one does in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal hexadecimal] to which the reply is that numbers above this amount are simply illegal. The trouble comes when you try to write down the number 10 * 10! = 36,288,000 (base 10) in this system. For 10!, the notation is 1000000000 , so 9 * 10! would be 9000000000, and then to get 10 * 10!, you would have to write A000000000 because 10 * 10! < 11!. In fact, since this is the first "illegal" number, you could "legally" allow up to 10 * 10! - 1 = 36,287,999 (base 10) in the system (which would be written as 9987654321 = 9 * 10! + 9 * 9! + 8 * 8! + ... + 2 * 1! + 1 * 1!) without the need to introduce any letters. I also want to point out that the reference in the comic to 9 being reserved for big numbers is due to no number needing a 9 to write it down in this system until 9 * 9! = 3265920 which is written 900000000. Since numbers above 10! are not allowed, this means that only the 9! digit is legally allowed to hold a 9, and it only applies to numbers in that high range of 3265920 to 3628799.[[Special:Contributions/172.71.166.230|172.71.166.230]] 15:01, 30 September 2023 (UTC)
:I feel in the current in-Explanation explanation about that already covers this, with the addition of the validity that the digit that could need to be >9 could still be any digit 0..9 without needing to invoke the 11th digit. (Maybe a few tweaks, but not sure what you're trying to add here.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.148|172.70.86.148]] 15:13, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

User talk:Memo Spike Connector

2023-04-11T11:33:44Z

172.70.86.148:

I've created your page. {{unsigned|Unreliable Connection|06:16, 9 April 2023‎}}
:Thank you. [[User:Memo Spike Connector|2503: Memo Spike Connector]] ([[User talk:Memo Spike Connector|talk]]) 09:00, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:No problem. [[User:Unreliable Connection|2659: Unreliable Connection]] ([[User talk:Unreliable Connection|talk]]) 09:02, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
::Hmm. 2 minutes. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.148|172.70.86.148]] 11:33, 11 April 2023 (UTC)
:("Your"... I don't believe you...) You've created this for no good reason, SFAICT. Are you going to create users (and copy pages) for ''every'' standard explanation? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.187|172.71.178.187]] 12:17, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

2759: Easily Confused Acronyms

2023-04-10T01:33:26Z

172.70.86.148: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2759
| date = April 5, 2023
| title = Easily Confused Acronyms
| image = easily_confused_acronyms_2x.png
| imagesize = 557x444px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = 'Lever' was originally an acronym for Load Emplification by the Vimulated Emission of Radiation.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a RIGHT OMPLIFICATION BY THE BIMULATED OMISSION OF TADIATION - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic, [[Randall]] compared the acronym "laser" with various other five-letter acronyms.

He first explained "laser" correctly. Then "maser", which is a type of laser and changes only one word in the acronym, he also explains correctly. Although in both cases he includes the definite article into the expanded phrase ("by the", instead of just the more usual "by"), to the same ultimate meaning and with short words that are traditionally not so often used in the initialisms (like "of" is not, here, also) and thus allows them to be more pronouncable acronyms that have become words in their own right rather than more awkward initialisms.

He then makes the following three entries, and the further actual word from the title text, follow precisely the same pattern by simply taking the full phrase for "laser"/"maser" and changing the first word, as appropriate, and the initial letter of any other words that need to change to fit. The replacement first word is correct for these acronyms, but the other words formed from changing the first letter are nonsense.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
!Acronym !! Comic !! Actual
|-
| {{w|Laser}} || ✅ Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation || '''L'''ight '''A'''mplification by '''S'''timulated '''E'''mission of '''R'''adiation
|-
| {{w|Maser}} || ✅ Microwave Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation || '''M'''icrowave '''A'''mplification by '''S'''timulated '''E'''mission of '''R'''adiation
|-
| {{w|Sonar}} || ❌ Sound Omplification by the Nimulated Amission of Radiation || '''SO'''und '''N'''avigation '''A'''nd '''R'''anging
|-
| {{w|Radar}} || ❌ Radio Amplification by the Dimulated Amission of Radiation || '''RA'''dio '''D'''etection '''A'''nd '''R'''anging
|-
| {{w|Lidar}} || ❌ Light Implification by the Dimulated Amission of Radiation || '''LI'''ght '''D'''etection '''A'''nd '''R'''anging
|-
| {{w|Lever}} (title text) || ❌ Load Emplification by the Vimulated Emission of Radiation || (not an acronym in common usage)
|}

Laser and maser are true-to-life acronyms. The remaining three acronyms' true expansions are as given in the table. The false definitions suppose that all of the acronyms simply follow the same model as the first two correct ones, and swap out the necessary letters to fit in a square-peg-round-hole manner. Note that the latter three in the table each include the second letter from their first word, for their partly-{{w|Abbreviation#Syllabic abbreviation|syllabic abbreviation}} as derived from their true phrase of origin.

The title text extends this to the five-letter word "lever". This is an ordinary word, not a commonly used acronym. Levers have been used since time immemorial (even [https://quatr.us/physics/levers-simple-machines-physics.htm animals have been known to use them)], and predates high-tech uses of radiation by millennia (it's one of the {{w|simple machines}} that {{w|Archimedes}} studied in Ancient Greece). [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2722:_Etymonline Etymonline] traces the origin of the word to the year 1300, from the French "levier", which shares the same definition.

==Transcript==

:Easily-Confused Acronyms
:Cheat Sheet

:Laser

:Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation

:Maser

:Microwave Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation

:Sonar

:Sound Omplification by the Nimulated Emission of Radiation

:Radar

:Radio Amplification by the Dimulated Amission of Radiation

:Lidar

:Light Implification by the Dimulated Amission of Radiation

==Trivia==
LEVER is an uncommonly used acronym for Light Electric Vehicle Education and Research.
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: Science]]
[[Category: Language]]

Talk:2758: My Favorite Things

2023-04-05T05:47:06Z

172.70.86.148:

I like the copper veneer news link, can someone find a version not behind a paywall though? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.100.130|172.70.100.130]] 18:29, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

Still no April Fools' comic? 😞 ~ Megan she/her [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 23:31, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
:Sadly --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 02:42, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
::guess there won't be one for this year [[User:Lettherebedarklight|youtu.be/]][[User talk:Lettherebedarklight|miLcaqq2Zpk]] 03:04, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

:Anyone have any news?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.131.182|172.70.131.182]] 23:32, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

:[[:File:Explanation length.png|Frankly, I'm worried about burnout.]] [[User:Liv2splain|Liv2splain]] ([[User talk:Liv2splain|talk]]) 10:52, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
::Naw, I think there's life in explainxkcders yet...
::If you mean Randall, however:
::# Complexity of necessary explanation doesn't necessarily tally with the quality of the comic (some might even say that the best comic is something real smart and yet perfectly understandable without much actual blather required by/from us),
::# There'll be more natural and immediate zeroing in on the 'ideal' explanation length with each emerging comics, whilst it becomes a conscious decision by someone to decide to revist an early comic and completely rewrite (solo, rather than as part of a crowd) to the 'latest' standards of verbosity/succinctity.
::# As xkcd lore grows, there's more back-referencing and expansion possible (c.f. "So... What's this boy in a barrel about?" vs the now established behaviour of any particular '<Colour> <Headwear>' character.
::# Everyone likes some types of comic and dislikes others.. If a new Map Of The Internet came out, some would enjoy it (and then maybe rail against a boring Cursed Thing comic, afterwards), and some others might think it derivative (yeah, they got a good Cursed thing joke, straight after, but the Map just sticks in their mind as a bad decision).
::...so I say enjoy or don't enjoy. There's a whole world of webcomics out there, and yet none of them is capable of being "every one a winner", by whatever aesthetic, metric or tally you might decide works for you. I'm probably missing some other rising (or risen, and favourably plateaued) star, by being right here, right now, but I feel happy enough to lurk here (and everywhere else I hang around). You do and think as you will. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.187|172.71.178.187]] 13:20, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
::There's a few concerning things about this wiki, like the fact that the MediaWiki version's lagging behind the latest release by too far. If there's a security vulnerability who knows what the vandals will do with it... ~ Megan she/her [[user talk:megan|talk]]/[[special:contribs/megan|contribs]] 02:26, 5 April 2023 (UTC)
::: Vandals are capable of doing a lot. As they have done, over the last year or two, in particular (though those incidents were probably just the one idiot who is still likely around, but more subtle). The potential for security vulnerabilities is a separate issue, and there a documented reasons for how that is/isn't being dealt with, if you check. Your concerns are probably noted, they've been mentioned often enough, but I wouldn't want to speak for those with more direct influence and responsibility. I presume you all practice Safe Hex (i.e. not reusing passwords, especially in any email service you're registered with, should such stored details somehow become compromised) and that means it's 'only' an inconvenience if worst comes to worst, less so than the loss of the Forums was.
::: And this really has nothing to do with complaints about a 'decline in quality' of either comics or their explanations. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.148|172.70.86.148]] 05:47, 5 April 2023 (UTC)

== Table? ==

I'd like to add this table, but I'm not completely certain about it; it may be redundant to the transcript and comic itself, and just including the original lyrics would suffice.

{|class="wikitable"
! Original line
! Cueball's version
|-
|Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
|Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
|-
|Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
|Bright copper kettles leave... flakes on my mittens!?
|-
|Brown paper packages tied up with strings
|Hey, these are stone with a copper veneer!
|-
|These are a few of my favorite things!
|I've been bamboozled by Ea-nāṣir!
|}

Thoughts? Plus a version for the title text, most likely. --[[User:Jacky720|Jack]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|t]]|[[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|c]]) 15:11, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
:I think the transcript is fine as is. If you know the song, the way it's done in the text is sufficient. If you don't, doing it as a table won't help. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:18, 4 April 2023 (UTC)

2754: Relative Terms

2023-03-31T10:03:42Z

172.70.86.148: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2754
| date = March 24, 2023
| title = Relative Terms
| image = relative_terms_2x.png
| imagesize = 425x442px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Small sewing machines are sewing machines that are smaller than a sewing machine. A sewing machine is larger than a small sewing machine, but quieter than a loud sewing machine.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT THAT IS LARGER THAN A BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The terms "small" and "big" are used to refer to size; the terms "loud" and "quiet" are used to refer to (audial) volume.

While these terms are relative, they are often used even when there is nothing obvious being compared against (e.g. "A windmill is a big thing" or "An ant is a small thing"). This comic humorously suggests that the item defined to be in the middle of all four terms ("neither small nor big; neither quiet nor loud") is a sewing machine, as a sewing machine seems (at least in comparison to the other items on the graph) to be neither particularly big nor particularly small, neither particularly quiet nor particularly loud.

An alternative argument may be that the in the center would be the average adult human (as this is the perspective from which most people use language), though this observation would lose some of the comic's comedic value.

The center of the chart is a sewing machine, and the comic is claiming that the scales of "loud and quiet" and "big and small" are measured in comparison to a standard size sewing machine. A standard sewing machine is roughly 60dB in volume and approximately 42” X 21”, although this is for industrial machines, and those in the home would be both smaller and quieter.

Many of the items appear to have been placed in the wrong quadrant for their actual attributes; locations seem to reflect more how people generally think of these things, as opposed to their real-life relationship to a sewing machine.

The title text is humorously tautological because it compares the standard against those things that are themselves defined against the standard.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Small and quiet (upper left)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Ant || Randall has used ants as a small comparator in [[2733:_Size_Comparisons|a previous comic]] on the topic of comparisons.
|-
| Balloon || A party balloon is quite loud when it pops, or if someone 'squeaks' it by rubbing; a hot-air balloon is big enough to carry a few humans, and the burner can be surprisingly loud.
|-
| Book || Books are typically sized to be handheld, and thus smaller than a sewing machine, though some very large books do exist.[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/longest-book-in-the-world-impossible-to-read-180980814/#:~:text=At%2021%2C450%20Pages%2C%20the%20Longest,World%20Is%20Impossible%20to%20Read&text=Artist%20Ilan%20Manouach%20bound%20together,the%20commodification%20of%20comic%20books.] Similarly, books are associated with quiet activity, making no more sound than a quiet turning of a page in typical use, but could make a very loud bang if slammed shut on thrown forcefully on to a hard surface.
|-
| Bun (rabbit or pastry) || "Bun" is an informal term for a rabbit and a loaf of bread, this comparison was made in [[1871: Bun Alert]]
|-
| Butterfly || Butterflies are used as an exemplar of something small, unnoticeable and seemingly insignificant in the metaphor of the Butterfly Effect.
|-
| Hat ||
|-
| Mouse || A mouse is a very small, quiet animal. This might also be a reference to the expression "quiet as a mouse", meaning very quietly.
|-
| Newt ||
|-
| Pin drop || The expression "hear a pin drop" is used to indicate that an area is exceptionally quiet; the idea is that the space is so silent that even something as insubstantial and tiny as a pin can be heard hitting the ground.
|-
| Snow globe || A {{w|snow globe}} is much smaller than a sewing machine. Some snow globes have a small music box that can be wound up to play a melody. Snow globes without a music box are silent.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Small and loud (upper right)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Baby || Babies are usually considered small, and can be quite loud when they cry.
|-
| Blender || Blenders make a lot of noise when in use. Most household blenders are smaller than a sewing machine.
|-
| Cricket || Given that it is in the small/loud quadrant, this would refer to the insect, which is pretty small and can be quite loud; the sport of cricket or a cricket game would be much larger (though potentially much louder).
|-
| Fire alarm || The primary purpose of a fire alarm is to notify people of fire, so fire alarms are usually very loud, but ideally take up little space.
|-
| Firecracker || A {{w|Firecracker}} is a small explosive firework that makes a very loud bang when lit.
|-
| Flute || An example of a small musical instrument that can nevertheless be audibly quite dominant.
|-
| Harmonica || See Flute.
|-
| Popcorn || A snack that is known for being annoyingly loud in a cinema setting. However, this is largely due to the otherwise low volume environment, and arguably a sewing machine might be equally or more annoying. Also, some helpings of popcorn in some cinemas may actually be larger than a sewing machine.
|-
| Songbird ||
|-
| Whistle || This is of course a device known as a whistle, as these are small. The human act of whistling, or a whistle produced by, for example, a kettle, has no size (other than that of the whistler or whistling object). A whistle is used as an alert or signal, or could be another musical instrument (see Flute). The loudest human whistle ever recorded was 8372 Hz and roughly 110 DB, which is a C9 in the standard musical scale and is roughly as loud as a jackhammer[https://www.vnews.com/West-Lebanon-man-sets-a-world-record-for-whistling-24480844#:~:text=Guinness'%20website%20says%20Stanford%20reached,in%20the%20standard%20musical%20notation.]. Since a whistle should be able to beat this it must be seen as loud.
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Big and quiet (lower left)
|-
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Anaconda ||
|-
| Giraffe || Giraffes can be quite loud, but they usually vocalise using frequencies well below the range of human hearing. So, to a human, giraffes are quiet.
|-
| Northern lights || "In 2016, a Finnish study confirmed that the Aurora Borealis does produce a sound that can be heard" [https://www.techexplorist.com/listen-sound-aurora-borealis/47421/]
|-
| Shark ||
|-
| Statue || Most statues are larger than a sewing machine. Most statues are silent, but some have fountains or other devices that make sound.
|-
| The Moon || Lower left corner; the Moon is very, very big{{fact}}, but it is also completely silent{{fact}} as sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space.
|-
| Tree ||
|-
| Windmill ||
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Big and loud (lower right)
|-
! Item !! Description
|-
| Airplane ||
|-
| Cannon ||
|-
| Riding mower ||
|-
| [[wikipedia:Calliope_(music)|Steam calliope]] || A large musical device which functions by sending steam (or more recently compressed air) through attached whistles.
|-
| Train ||
|-
| Tuba ||
|-
| Volcano || Lower right corner. Volcanic eruptions can be extremely loud. The {{w|1883 eruption of Krakatoa}} made a pressure wave of 180 dB, the loudest sound ever recorded.
|-
| Waterfall ||
|-
| Whale ||
|}

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

:[A chart, with "Quiet" to "Loud" on the X-axis, and "Small" to "Big" on the Y-axis. It is split into four quarters, with "Sewing machine" in the center.]

:[Upper left quadrant (Small & Quiet items):] Butterfly, Pin drop, Mouse, Ant, Bun (rabbit or pastry), Snow globe, Newt, Balloon, Book, Hat

:[Upper right quadrant (Small & Loud items):] Popcorn, Cricket, Songbird, Whistle, Baby, Harmonica, Flute, Fire alarm, Blender, Firecracker

:[Lower left quadrant (Big & Quiet items):] Shark, Tree, Anaconda, Giraffe, Statue, Windmill, Northern lights, The Moon

:[Lower right quadrant (Big & Loud items):] Tuba, Riding mower, Cannon, Airplane, Train, Waterfall, Steam calliope, Whale, Volcano

:[Caption below the panel:]
:''Big'', ''Small'', ''Loud'', and ''Quiet'' are relative terms. The thing they're relative to is a sewing machine.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Buns]]
[[Category:Sharks]]
[[Category:Music]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Food]]

Talk:913: Core

2023-03-24T03:43:36Z

172.70.86.148:

And the crust is just thin enough that volcanoes and earthquakes are a thing. Safety! '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 01:30, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Isn't the glancing down and saying "I study that" a reference to something more inappropriate? ~ JFreund
:I think that's the joke. [[User:NealCruco|NealCruco]] ([[User talk:NealCruco|talk]]) 17:27, 17 March 2014 (UTC)
::No it isn't. That interpretation is not related to the comic in any way. Removed the last paragraph of the explanation as it is irrelevant to the comic. [[User:R3TRI8UTI0N|R3TRI8UTI0N]] ([[User talk:R3TRI8UTI0N|talk]]) 03:01, 24 March 2023 (UTC)
:::Are you more sure than the many people who would have read this over the years and ''not'' decided to remove the comment? Very admirable of you to be so impulsively certain. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.148|172.70.86.148]] 03:43, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

I agree. If you stand with your arm at shoulder height and gesture downwards, saying "I study that", you will be pointing both toward the center of the earth and at your own genitals. That is the joke in the title text. {{unsigned ip|173.245.52.196}}
:Am I the only one who thinks that that interpretation is dumb? It's clearly just a non-joking comment about how awesome it is to study the planet billions of humans live on, or so I think. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 17:28, 22 June 2019 (UTC)
::No, I think you're right. The genital theory could be considered a humorous opening to a speech, but I believe it is a reference to the planet below everyone. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.106.234|162.158.106.234]] 15:50, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

And if Carlos Saldanha,s documentary is correct, the earth will be filled - FILLED - with velociraptors. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.56.191|173.245.56.191]] 15:25, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

FYI: It's not ''right'' under you. It's more like far, far, very far away from you. '''AND''' it's quite some time behind you, left of you, right of you, in front of you, and sometimes even {{w|Underwater Diving|above you}}. {{w|Sleep|See also!}}{{unsigned ip|162.158.83.144}}

2752: Salt Dome

2023-03-21T10:11:02Z

172.70.86.148: /* Explanation */ Typo. Rephrased slightly to avoid garden-path misreading.

{{comic
| number = 2752
| date = March 20, 2023
| title = Salt Dome
| image = salt_dome_2x.png
| imagesize = 422x338px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The US uses hollowed-out salt domes to store the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and non-hollowed-out ones to store the Strategic Salt Reserve.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by STRATEGIC SALT SPREADER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic refers to how downwards pressure in one area of the world can cause upwards pressure in another, causing {{w|salt domes}} to rise up.

In the comic, [[Beret Guy]] and [[Ponytail]] are sitting at a table and eating dinner, alongside [[Cueball]], who is presumably a {{w|geologist}}. Thus, when asked to "pass the salt," Cueball, with his extensive knowledge of the Earth's crust and its interactions with the surface world, is aware of this phenomenon, and as such is stomping on his chair in order to create downward pressure on the ground beneath. This apparently works exactly as intended, as a salt dome begins rising out of the floor and even begins to break through the dinner table. The caption humorously remarks that this is what will happen if you ask any geologist to "pass the salt," which conventionally means to simply hand a salt shaker or dispenser to another diner who cannot reach it. A salt shaker, presumably containing the salt intended to be passed, can be seen on their table.

Cueball mentions {{w|overburden pressure}}, a geological term referring to the pressure that outer layers of rock exert on inner layers. This is what usually causes the rising of salt domes, though Cueball's stomping on his chair would not produce sufficient overburden pressure to raise a salt dome.{{fact}} However this is exactly the kind of [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|Strange powers]] Beret Guy usually displays (similar power is shown in [[1388: Subduction License]]). So it is quite interesting that it is Cueball that has these kind of powers, especially with Beret Guy present at the table. Maybe it is because Beret Guy would never represent a geologist.

In the title text, the {{w|Strategic Petroleum Reserve (United States)|Strategic Petroleum Reserve}} is a United States government reserve of oil in case of emergencies. [[Randall]] observes the actually true fact that artificial caves within hollowed-out salt domes create the spaces for the government to store this oil. The joke in the title text is that Randall claims that salt domes, that are not yet hollow, are used to store the US salt reserve. Of course this could be seen as true, but this salt is not put there by humans, but by nature, and is thus not stored there by any government.

Ordinary salt is also available in abundance throughout the U.S.[https://uwaterloo.ca/earth-sciences-museum/resources/detailed-rocks-and-minerals-articles/salt] so there is no need for any kind of salt reserves, strategic or otherwise.{{fact}} By contrast the UK does maintain an Emergency Salt Reserve[https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/strategic-salt-protocol/national-emergency-salt-reserve-salt-protocol-note-for-local-highway-authorities-in-england], as part of a Strategic Salt Protocol[https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/strategic-salt-protocol], to ensure highways can be gritted during prolonged wintry weather.

==Transcript==
:[This comic is drawn on a gray background, with the segment beneath the floor in dark gray. This is to make the white part of the comic stand out as very white. In the comic Cueball, Beret Guy and Ponytail are dining at a long table, with Cueball and Ponytail far from each other at the either end of the table. Beret Guy sits close to Cueball, facing towards the reader, and he is quite far away from Ponytail. Beret Guy and Ponytail are sitting down in their chairs, Ponytail with her hands in her lap, Beret Guy with his arms on the table. Their chairs are quite high, neither of them are even close to reaching the floor with their feet. Cueball, on the other hand, is standing on his chair and is loudly stomping on the chair. This has caused the floor beneath the chairs legs to be dented slightly down. And a white column of salt has burst through the ground and is rising up under the table clearly bending the table up in the process, and the table surface is cracking up in several places. The white dome, the only white part of the image, is broader at the top than where it breaks through the floor, but widens out beneath the floor. The white salt has several small black spots on it, to indicate a rough surface. On the table there are three dining plates with food, a bowl and a plate with food, about to slide down the domed table surface, and two wine glasses, one of which has fallen over due to the deformation of the table. It has fallen over near Ponytail releasing the liquid out on the table, where it runs out over the side. Between Cueball and Beret Guy there stands a salt shaker, that could have been passed to Ponytail.]
:Cueball: Just a little more overburden pressure...
:Cueball: The dome is almost through the table...
:Cueball stomping: <big>''Stomp stomp''</big>

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Never ask a geologist to pass the salt.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Food]]

2749: Lymphocytes

2023-03-14T07:25:44Z

172.70.86.148: /* Explanation */ added CD8 and CD4 description

{{comic
| number = 2749
| date = March 13, 2023
| title = Lymphocytes
| image = lymphocytes_2x.png
| imagesize = 651x733px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = It's very hard to detect, but recent studies have determined that when plasma B cells are producing antibodies, they go 'pew pew pew'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by the WORLD'S SECOND COOLEST IMMUNOLOGIST - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

The human body contains many different types of immune cells.{{citation needed}} This comic is a list of lymphocytes, a specific type of immune cell that is found in lymph. As the comic goes on, in the style of many "informative" xkcd comics, the descriptions and names of the cells get more and more removed from reality. In fact, only one name and description is accurate, that being the plasma B cell description.

The title text is possibly a reference to this recent study: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.3c00638

{| class="wikitable"
! Name !! Real Lymphocyte? !! Description !! Comment
|-
| Plasma B cells || Yes || Churn out antibodies || {{w|Plasma B cell}}; churns out antibodies as the comic says.
|-
| Naïve B cells || Yes || Try to stop pathogens by asking nicely || B cells that have not yet been exposed to an antigen. Can only "ask nicely" for pathogens to stop because they cannot yet contribute to the immune system.
|-
| Memory B cells || Yes || Very quietly sing "memory" from ''Cats'' at all times || Long-lived B cells that "remember" an antigen it has previously encountered, allowing it to quickly respond to a reappearance of the same antigen.
|-
| {{w|Regulatory B cell}}s || Yes || Required by local ordinance || Suppress certain immune responses. Cells follow instructions from DNA, which might be considered to be local ordinances.
|-
| CD8+ T cells || Yes || Melee combat || Cytotoxic T cell, responsible for killing cells which are cancerous or infected. Named after the surface protein "CD8" ("Cluster of Differentiation") it uses when searching for targets. Possibly also reference to the tabletop gaming terminology where "d8" means 8-sided dice, "d4" means 4-sided dice, etc., as such dice are used in combat.
|-
| CD4+ T cells || Yes || Scream at other cells || Helper T Cell, releasing cytokines as a signal that prompts the immune system into action, thus "screaming" at other cells. Named after the surface protein "CD4" (see above), that is used for binding to other cells while "screaming".
|-
| Gamma-Delta T cells || Yes || Unknown / classified || T cells found largely in mucous membranes of the gut, with different T-cell receptors than normal. Effectively the immune system's first line of defense.
|-
| CDRW+ T cells || No || Rewritable, 700MB || Here, the meaning of "CD" is switched from {{w|Cluster of Differentiation}} to {{w|Compact Disc}}, as in the {{w|CD-RW}} re-writable media format.
|-
| DVD+R T cells || No || Different from DVD-R, though no one is sure how || {{w|DVD+R}} is a DVD format designed by {{w|HP Labs}}, while DVD-R (pronounced "dash R") came originally from {{w|Pioneer Corporation}} and was the earlier accepted system. The two formats are not trivially compatible, but many (re)writing DVD drives were made multiformat to automatically handle both of these, {{w|DVD-RAM}}, read/write versions and CD-density media, as necessary, under the general label of "DVD±RW". The user then ends up not usually needing, or bothering, to know the technical differences.
|-
| Natural killer cells || Yes || Named by the world's coolest immunologist || Kills cells infected by intracellular pathogens and other malfunctioning (e.g. cancerous) cells, similar to CD8+ cells but part of the {{w|innate immune system}}
|-
| ILC1, ILC2, and ILC3 cells || Yes || Named by a significantly less cool immunologist || Innate lymphoid cells, regulating the innate immune system through signaling molecules
|-
| D cells || No || Larger than C and AA cells, used in old flashlights || This is not a blood cell, but a {{w|D battery|"D cell" battery}}. Confusingly, biological cells called "D cells" or {{w|delta cell}}s do exist, but they are not lymphocytes.
|}

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

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Science]]

2740: Square Packing

2023-03-07T17:04:34Z

172.70.86.148: /* Explanation */ Not really a 3D press, except in the matter of having enough dimensions to press and hug, without penetrating or slicing.

{{comic
| number = 2740
| date = February 20, 2023
| title = Square Packing
| image = square_packing_2x.png
| imagesize = 326x295px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I also managed to improve the solution for n=1 to s<0.97, and with some upgrades I think I can hit 0.96.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HYDRAULIC PRESSED SQUARE - This appears to be referring to a specific puzzle that merits explanation before going into description of the comic. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
The {{w|Square packing in a square|square packing problem}} is a type of geometry problem. The goal is to find the smallest possible "outer square" that will fit N "inner squares" that are each 1 unit wide and 1 unit tall. In the comic N=11, leading to its name of "The N=11 Square Packing Problem," and the value 's' is the length of the outer square's sides. (For example, with 16 squares arrayed in a 4x4 square, 's' would be 4. [''an image would be helpful here''])

This comic spoofs a common phenomenon for some values of N: sometimes the optimal solution looks very "sloppy" to human sensibilities. The lack of a uniform grid or pattern, where some squares look to be misaligned or a lot of space looks wasted, counterintuitively leads to a smaller value for 's' than something more "organized" might be. 'N=11' is one such "frustrating" solution (though it should be noted, the solution depicted has not yet been proven to be optimum).

A few days before this comic's post, a web page [https://erich-friedman.github.io/packing/squinsqu/ ''Squares in squares''] gained interest on social media platforms such as [https://twitter.com/KangarooPhysics/status/1625436240412540928 Twitter] and [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34809023 Hacker News]. For many values of N, that page depicts the best known solutions, some of them known to be optimum. The one for N=11 (best known but not proven to be optimum) is the one Randall uses for this comic; its general arrangement was found by Walter Trump in 1979 and slightly improved by Gensane et al. in 2004.<ref>Gensane, T., Ryckelynck, P. – ''Improved dense packings of congruent squares in a square''. Discrete Comput Geom 34, pages 97–109 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00454-004-1129-z</ref>

Munroe claims to have found a more efficient solution for this N=11 case, by physically deforming the squares involved in the best-known solution with a {{w|hydraulic press}}. The size of the resulting bounding square is indeed smaller, but the "solution" isn't actually one because the inner shapes have countless wrinkles and are no longer squares. Geometrical shapes in packing problems are not conventionally assumed to be deformable in this manner.{{citation needed}}

The title text mentions the same approach "improved" the solution for 1 unit square, whose optimum solution is obviously that unit square itself with s=1. Munroe remarks that if he had "some upgrades", presumably a more powerful hydraulic press, he could get the resulting square to be even smaller.

The humorous implication behind the comic and the title text is that rather than the shapes being mathematical, abstract shapes, they are actually physical squares, constructed of some extremely strong, but not completely incompressible material. It is not obvious what material that might be: even using a hydraulic press, its cross-sectional area can only be reduced to 0.97 or 0.96 times that it starts with. (The fact that the theoretical squares exist in a 2D universe in the problem statement, but here are seemingly 3D objects showing distortions in the sides facing the viewer after being presumably crushed from the top and sides in turn by the hydraulic press, is not more fully addressed.)

This is perhaps a related joke to [[2706: Bendy]], but now with squares and compressed areas instead of triangles and extended lengths. Unsolved packing problems also appear to be a long-standing interest of Randall, who shows himself pondering "the most efficient packing of round-cut diamonds of uniform size" in the What If? [https://what-if.xkcd.com/108/ Expensive Shoebox], with the title text "A Google search for unsolved+packing+problems very nearly got me just now."

‎<references />

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[11 squares optimally packed inside a square arrangement]
:Previous best
:s<3.877084
:(Gensane, 2004)

:[11 deformed squares crushed together to pack them into a smaller square arrangement]
:New record
:s<3.40

:[Caption below the panel:]
:I've significantly improved on the solution to the n=11 square packing problem by using a hydraulic press.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Math]]
[[Category:Geometry]]

2654: Chemtrails

2023-03-02T18:22:35Z

172.70.86.148: /* Explanation */ subject agreement

{{comic
| number = 2654
| date = August 3, 2022
| title = Chemtrails
| image = chemtrails.png
| titletext = Ants have reverse chemtrails--regular citizens spraying chemicals everywhere they go to control the government.
}}

==Explanation==
This is another comic on [[:Category:How to annoy|How to annoy]] people. Here [[Cueball]] annoys [[Ponytail]], an entomologist who studies ant navigation, by telling her "So, I hear you're really into chemtrails?"

Two very similar comic has been released [[2036: Edgelord]] and [[2744: Fanservice]], with same setting but different text, both with [[White Hat]] being annoyed.

{{w|Entomologist}}s study insects. {{w|Ant}}s are insects that leave chemical trails to and from food sources or other events. These chemical trails can guide other ants in their colony, for instance, to return to food. Biologists call such signaling chemicals {{w|pheromones}}. This comic uses the word chemtrail as a shortening of chemical trail. [[Cueball]] is intentionally conflating ant chemical trails with {{w|chemtrails}}, the subject of a fallacious conspiracy theory that the government controls the population by spraying toxic or mind-/body-transformative chemicals from high altitude aircraft.

That myth may be partly based on the practice of {{w|cloud seeding}}, which uses chemical flares containing silver nitrate to attempt to increase precipitation,[https://www.vox.com/videos/23290459/cloud-seeding-manmade-rain-future-perfect] on studies of chemical mind control among ants,[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022191016301640] or on the effects of the common parasite ''{{w|toxoplasma gondii}}'' on cats' prey. Despite [[1677: Contrails|occasional conflation]], chemtrails are distinct from "contrails," short for "condensation trails," which are cloud-like lines in the sky created by {{w|Contrails|airplane engines or airfoils}}. Such linear cloud formations only sometimes arise from temperature and pressure disturbances of the passing aircraft, rather than any deliberate release, but are highly visible in the right conditions under flightpaths, and may have the appearance of "spraying" action. {{w|Nucleation#Examples of the nucleation of fluids (gases and liquids)|Vapor nucleation}} is central to both cloud seeding and contrails. People sometimes attempt chemical manipulation of unwitting people in small areas (such as scent-based marketing, commercial space scent utilization, or wearing scented products.[https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3469-smells-shoppers-spend-more.html]) There is very little evidence that sophisticated mind control posited by chemtrail conspiracists is possible, even after extensive research.[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Poisoner_in_Chief/U6iDDwAAQBAJ]

[[Ponytail]] is an entomologist, studying chemically mediated cooperative ant navigation. [[Cueball]] knows she will be annoyed when he tells her, "So, I hear you're really into chemtrails?" Indeed, he gets the reaction he hoped for when she objects strongly and rejects this with a loud, "'''No!!'''" The choice of terminology is often a sore spot for those who study a particular field in depth, for example entomological discussions of "slave-making" in socially parasitic species.[https://evolve.community.uaf.edu/2015/04/23/emantcipation-when-captured-ants-rise-against-their-captors/] [[Randall]] writes in the caption that such misuse is how to annoy people like Ponytail.

The title text humorously contrasts individual ants instinctively deciding how the whole colony behaves by using chemicals to indicate routes to food or dangers to motivate the colony to react to their individual experiences, with the human fear of loss of personal independence by being regulated by otherwise disconnected ruling elites, as depicted in the ant/technology interaction speculative fiction-themed [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fISvc-yUU1A "Infrared"] music video by the alt-rock band ''Placebo''.

Ants are a recurring theme, as are those who study them. See for instance [[638: The Search]] which specifically deals with ants' pheromone trails or [[1610: Fire Ants]]. Chemtrails were also the subject of [[966: Jet Fuel]], [[1677: Contrails]], and were mentioned in [[1803: Location Reviews]].

==Transcript==

:[Cueball stands talking to Ponytail, who has her arms raised and has small lines above her head to indicate annoyance.]
:Cueball: So, I hear you're really into chemtrails?
:Ponytail: '''''No!!'''''

:[Caption below the panel:]
:How to annoy entomologists who study ant navigation

==Trivia==
*Whether ant gland secretion signalling is {{w|Turing completeness|Turing-equivalent}} is explored in Douglas Hofstadter's ''{{w|Gödel, Escher, Bach|Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid}}''.
*Ponytail may conceivably be a professional entomologist who once worked with an editor who inserted the word "chemtrails" in one of her [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00359-019-01363-z comparative physiology] or [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-020-01354-7 ''Animal Cognition''] drafts competing before a peer review panel with papers by [https://bio.kuleuven.be/ento/pdfs/billen_procnev_2006_signal_variety.pdf Johan Bilen] of the Leuven University Zoological Institute and Harvard's [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674045880 Rüdiger Wehner].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Ants]]
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theory]]
[[Category:Aviation]]
[[Category:How to annoy]]

Talk:2744: Fanservice

2023-03-02T13:45:30Z

172.70.86.148: Was trying to find a way to say "meta" without actually saying "meta"... And forgot to come back to it. ;)

I don’t want to be that guy but “I got to the explanation so early that its only 1 sentence!” [[Special:Contributions/172.70.174.43|172.70.174.43]]
:I also don't want to be that other guy, but while I was composing my "there wasn't anything yet, let's put something there" text, something actually appeared. (Though it just appended my bit, didn't give me Edit Conflict warning.) I'll let someone else mish-mash the useful bits of both fresh-starts together, though. Might be that none of my contribution is worthwhile.
:(I took quite a while trying to decide whether to make a joke that if he was a ''specialist'' in air-movement devices, without necessarily branching out into any air-conditioning elements, then ''<something something, insert some useful words here>'' OnlyFans! So then I obviously eventually decided it wasn't worth it. ;) ) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.100|172.70.90.100]] 16:47, 1 March 2023 (UTC)

;New recurring subject?
First we had [[2036: Edgelord]]. Then we had [[2654: Chemtrails]]. Now we have this comic. They all start with "So, I hear" and end with "How to annoy". So I think that
a new recurring subject has been established. I'm thinking it should be called something like "How To Annoy Comics". [[User:SilverTheTerribleMathematician|Silver]] ([[User talk:SilverTheTerribleMathematician|talk]]) 16:40, 1 March 2023 (UTC)
:Might be best wait for a third one, or more. A category of two is a bit of a stretch. Someone pointed out the prior one, so should be easier to pick up all three+ examples when it becomes a more definite 'thing'.
:And if we were to call it "How to annoy" (say) and then the actual third is very similar but actually ends "How to confuse" then the category is already non-descriptive. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.46|172.70.162.46]] 16:55, 1 March 2023 (UTC)
::There are 3 aren’t there? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.150|172.70.38.150]] 17:40, 1 March 2023 (UTC)
:::There were two originally (I'd forgotten the chemtrails one, myself, when first thinking of this) and, yes, there's now three identified "So I hear/How to annoy"s. Might have crossed the threshold. But leaving that decision to someone who can do something about it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.253|172.70.90.253]] 18:12, 1 March 2023 (UTC)
:Agreed. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.38.77|172.70.38.77]] 18:46, 1 March 2023 (UTC)
::I also agreed and could see that there where already 6 comics about how to Annoy. So I think the [[:Category:How to annoy]] is well named, and should also include those other comics that are not completely similar to this one. And thus I have created the page and made some description. Also this is similar to other categories like My Bobby, fun facts and protip. So I linked to them from the new category and vise versa. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:26, 2 March 2023 (UTC)
:::Thanks. --[[Special:Contributions/172.70.42.157|172.70.42.157]] 13:29, 2 March 2023 (UTC)
:::Made some rephrasings in the Category (you may have already noticed). I'm also not sure if there should necessary be any "and at this point, we created the category" spiel in describing the category. It seems a bit self-referential.
:::My ideal way of "explaining the category" would be that the three (or more, given Fan Service is almost exactly the same Cueball vs Annoyed, but with others involved) of the most common form could be listed (chronologically) as being one person saying something that annoys another. If we can be sure it will be promptly updated if/when further core-archetype examples appear (the list of membership is automatic, of course).
:::Then others (currently Normal + Spiral) ''could'' be listed explicitly, if they start to hold similar forms (mathematical plots?), or the fact that there are also other forms is sufficient note. (But this could lead to effectively listing everything twice. Narratively then the auto-list. Breaking out into sub-cats would be better if that got too crazy.)
:::Ditto with other Categories that have a "And then we realised that..." sort of form. Nicely expounded, often very well written, but I'm not sure it has the right tone. IMO, YMMV. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.162.46|172.70.162.46]] 13:43, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

Should the connection to [[2036: Edgelord]] be at the start of the explanation? --[[User:Purah126|Purah126]] ([[User talk:Purah126|talk]]) 19:05, 1 March 2023 (UTC)
:Yes. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:26, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

2741: Wish Interpretation

2023-02-27T09:37:45Z

172.70.86.148: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2741
| date = February 22, 2023
| title = Wish Interpretation
| image = wish_interpretation_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x288px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = "I wish for everything in the world. All the people, money, trees, etc." "Are you SURE you--" "And I want you to put it in my house."
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by Rain, Rain, Stay - Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In this comic [[Black Hat]] has found a lamp with a {{w|Genie (Disney)|magical genie}} inside. This genie will only fulfill one wish (not the standard three) and warns that it will twist the wish to teach him a lesson...

In stories where wishing can come true by magical means, a common theme is that the wisher will make a wish (for greater or lesser personal gain) but the entity who grants it will {{tvtropes|LiteralGenie|inadvertently}} (or {{tvtropes|JackassGenie|'inadvertently'}}) fulfill the exact wording in such a way that something bad happens which the wisher clearly did not foresee. This may teach the wisher, or at least the reader of the story, an important moral lesson against greed. The wish-granter is not always represented as deliberately obtuse or malicious, but may merely be a naive and uncritical servant of the wish-granting process. A wish for money, for example, might be 'easiest' to accomplish by suddenly being the recipient of a loved-one's Life Insurance rather than the rather less upsetting scenario of finding that they possess a winning lottery ticket. In the comic, however, this genie is perfectly self-aware of the part he will play in creatively misapplying the wish, and even goes so far as to forewarn the wisher – maybe a deliberate ploy to have wishers take a moment to think and tone down their more spontaneous demands.

However, as is characteristic for him, Black Hat has no concern for the wider negative effects, and immediately wishes for rain to no longer happen, perpetually, for the apparent trivial reason of merely saving him the need to carry an umbrella. The {{w|Water cycle|consequences}} of this drastic change to the weather (no matter by which method it is accomplished) would plainly be very bad, as Black Hat is almost certainly fully aware. The genie realizes that there is very little 'good' idea for him to twist into a bad one, and that Black Hat will be peculiarly unreceptive to being 'taught a moral lesson'. Especially compared to the utter devastation that the granted wish ''will'' cause to the rest of the non-wishing world, which the genie might be reluctant to enact.

Having persuaded his wisher to retract the original request, the genie now has to deal with two rather ''too'' open-ended, generally pessimistic requests in a similar vein. Exactly what Black Hat "deserves" is possibly subjective; and someone "getting what they deserve" tends to be a rather negative outcome. To this, the genie seems dismayed at Black Hat essentially wishing for a bad outcome (with nothing to twist to serve a moral lesson), but the genie still seems to have enough latent sympathy to lampshade the trouble being invited, assuming that it was a particularly unintended turn of phrase.

Undaunted, the next version of Black Hat's revised wish uses even more unambiguously perilous wording. The suggestion of "what's coming to" someone is frequently used as a threat (or menacing promise) of violence. Even taken at face value, the wish would either be meaningless (Black Hat would receive whatever fate would have befallen him without the wish, and the genie would have effected no change), or it would be tautologous (whatever is coming to him is whatever the result of the wish is, so how is the genie to decide what that should be?). Regardless of the outcome, Black Hat is wishing for something already negative with no room for a moral twist, or something that is essentially tautological. This disheartens the genie even more, given the genie's apparent obligation to be inconveniently literal and problematic in interpreting wishes.

Clearly outclassed in his attempt to establish his ability to cause problems, or perhaps out of pity for Black Hat's self-destructive wishes, the genie gets frustrated and backtracks rapidly. He offers just $20 (a token amount of money, possibly out of his own pocket in order to completely avoid using his potentially dangerous magical abilities) to get himself out of the original formulaic deal and permanently away from having to be under Black Hat's influence.

In the title text, the wisher (possibly still Black Hat, or possibly just another rather awkward individual) wishes for everything in the world. This is itself a not unknown "bad wish" that would be creatively twisted into a bad consequence for the necessary narrative reasons (for example, ownership of everything in the world might come with inconvenient or even impossible responsibilities). The wish continues, however, and explicitly asks that all of this be put into their house. This is impossible for two reasons: First, everything wouldn't fit in their house unless it was made extremely dense, beyond the point of usefulness; second, it causes an infinite recursion, since their house is something in the world, so it would have to be put inside itself. Trying to grant this wish would likely also frustrate the genie, and certainly not allow them their usual scope of a personal (and proportional) educational twist.

Black Hat has been seen experimenting with the rules for wishing before, in [[1086: Eyelash Wish Log]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Feel free to improve it or add more details. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[Black Hat is holding a genie lamp in his hands. A genie has appeared from the end of the lamp. The genie is depicted as a turbanless Cueball-like figure floating without a lower body, having a puff of smoke in place of his legs.]
:Genie: I will grant you one wish.
:Genie: But beware, for I will twist the meaning of your words to teach you a lesson!

:[Black Hat holds the lamp to his side. The genie has his arms crossed.]
:Black Hat: Gotcha! Hmm.
:Black Hat: I'm tired of carrying an umbrella. I wish it never rained again.

:[Close-up on the genie.]
:Genie: ...Okay.
:Genie: I'm supposed to twist your words to teach you a lesson, but that actually sounds very straightforwardly bad.
:Genie: Can you maybe try again?

:[Zoom back to Black Hat and the genie.]
:Black Hat: Fine. Just give me what I deserve.
:Genie: Oh my god. Have you read '''''any''''' stories about wishes?
:Black Hat: Come on! I want to get what's coming to me.
:Genie: Listen, I'm just gonna give you $20 and call this even.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Genie]]

1598: Salvage

2023-02-24T15:49:05Z

172.70.86.148: Undo revision 306752 by 172.68.102.16 (talk) Stupid vandal

{{comic
| number = 1598
| date = November 2, 2015
| title = Salvage
| image = salvage.png
| titletext = My hobby: Taking advantage of the rice myth by posting articles on "how to save your wet phone" which are actually just elaborate recipes for rice pilaf.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic''}} was a large ocean liner which, when it was completed in 1912, was the largest ship afloat. The ship famously hit an {{w|iceberg}} on its maiden voyage and sank, killing two-thirds of its complement (approximately 1,500 people) in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters ever.

As it sank, the ''Titanic'' broke into two pieces. The ship was lost for decades until the {{w|Wreck of the RMS Titanic|wreck site}} was discovered in 1985. A number of proposals have been made to salvage the wreck of the ''Titanic'' both before and since the wreck's discovery, famously fictionalized in the thriller novel and film {{w|Raise the Titanic!|''Raise the Titanic!''}} There could be a joke on this title as in ''Rice'' the Titanic, even though it would not be possible to mistake the two words when spoken in the majority of dialects of English.

The general consensus at this time is that the wreck is too fragile to be salvaged intact. Numerous expeditions have been made to the wreck site since its discovery, with several parties (without any outside authorization) taking various artifacts from the site. A popular view is that the wreck is effectively a mass grave and that plundering the site for profitable artifacts is akin to grave-robbing. Most believe the wreck should be left where it is, intact. That said, explorers have already done notable damage to the wreck.

This comic shows a fictional attempt to salvage the two main pieces of the ''Titanic'' wreck, which, as it likely would in real life, garners media coverage as a 'historic salvage'. The salvage seems to consist of several ships raising the hull via cables attached to some sort of buoyant sled placed under the hull (as might actually happen, except that the relative sizes of the ships and the hull are wrong; this method would require the salvage ships be much larger in proportion to what is being salvaged). This is followed by helicopters carrying the hull in unison, again via cables to the cradle (a much less practical operation). The hull halves are then dropped into a giant tub of rice. The entire salvage attempt is increasingly cartoonish and unrealistic, but the tub of rice takes this to another level. Also, the two parts of the Titanic collapsed when hitting the sea floor, and thus could not be moved as shown in the comic. See this video of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSGeskFzE0s How Titanic Sank].

The punchline to the comic references the "rice myth," (as [[Randall]] calls it) a popularly disseminated method of salvaging consumer electronics (usually cell phones) which have been submerged in water. (See [http://www.hud.ac.uk/news/2013/november/researchshowsriceistheanswerforawetmobile.php Research Shows Rice is the Answer for a Wet Mobile]). The method entails burying the wet device in a bowl of rice. This process is commonly claimed to dry the device, but investigation reveals that the process is only mildly effective (though not entirely a myth either, see below). This comic likely plays on the dual meaning of the word "[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/salvage salvage]" in respect of {{w|Salvage data|electronics}} and {{w|Marine salvage|maritime wrecks}}.

The comic suggests that the wreck of the Titanic would benefit from being dried as quickly as possible, in a humorous contrast to actual reality. Surviving non-metallic material on board the ship may not benefit at all from drying. Far more ancient shipwrecks are best preserved by keeping the recovered timbers ''wet'' (but progressively desalinated, where applicable), cool and anoxic, at least while conserving chemicals such as {{w|Polyethylene glycol}} are infused into the wood to allow safe and gradual drying without causing further damage. Leather, cloth and other organic remains may have variations on this regime. Thus the rice might benefit an electronic device briefly exposed to water, but is not likely to benefit a ship that has been immersed for over a century, where the interest is in more than merely stabilizing the remaining metal hull and infrastructure.

There are numerous on-line discussions of the technique with mixed levels of success. Critically, where rice is tested against other methods, rice appears to perform worse than other methods. Controlled experiments on this topic tend to show that {{w|silica gel}} (aka the "Do Not Eat" {{w|Silica_gel#Desiccant|packets}} often found in boxes with electronics or pharmaceuticals) is the most effective drying agent, with mixed results for rice. (see [http://smartphones.wonderhowto.com/how-to/myth-debunked-uncooked-rice-isnt-best-way-save-your-water-damaged-phone-0154799/ Myth Debunked: Uncooked Rice Isn't the Best Way to Save Your Water-Damaged Phone], where it turns out that leaving the phone to air-dry may actually be the best solution).

The title text tells of another [[:Category:My Hobby|hobby]] of [[Randall|Randall's]]. He likes to take advantage of the "rice myth" to post fake articles on how to save your wet cell phone. But the instructions turn out to be elaborate recipes for rice {{w|pilaf}}. It is unclear whether Randall's instructions would explain how to prepare the rice prior to inserting a phone (thus resulting a usable dish), or if the instructions would require the phone to be inserted into the dish before it became clear that the dish was a recipe for food and not a phone-saving measure, thus worsening the condition of the phone. This may also be a "punishment" by Randall to anyone who would follow instructions blindly before reading them through, as a recipe for rice Pilaf would likely be distinguishable from phone-saving instructions by someone who read the instructions through before attempting them. Or it may just be that Randall considers those who would follow instructions for saving a phone with rice that they find on the internet gullible enough to believe the seasonings and other ingredients would have a curative effect on electronics.

The rice myth is revisited in one of the tips in [[1820: Security Advice]].

==Transcript==
:[Megan is shown standing at the rail of a ship with a microphone reporting the event shown in the background. A small helicopter and a larger two rotor model, lowering a rope with hook, are hovering over a crane ship with its hook down line going down in the water. It is depicted like a news screen as seen on TV. Below Megan are two headings. The first in a white insert with double frame, and the other written in white over the gray ocean water.]
:Historic Salvage
:Live

:[Four crane ships are shown lifting the bow part of the RMS Titanic. There are pontoons beneath the ship to help it float up. The name of the ship can be seen.]
:RMS Titanic

:[Both parts of the Titanic are now flown by helicopters, four for the stern and five for the bow. One helicopter for each part is a two rotor model. Ropes go from the helicopters down on each side of the ship parts to pontoons below them. Below in the ocean there are two crane ships.]

:[The two parts of the ship is now lowered in to a huge bowl of rice (labeled) standing at the coast just out of the ocean, which can be seen to the left. One of the five helicopters for the bow is missing. For scale there are drawn two trees to the left, and something is parked to the right, maybe a truck.]
:Rice

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:My Hobby]]
[[Category:Phones]]
[[Category:Food]]

2508: Circumappendiceal Somectomy

2023-02-24T15:48:29Z

172.70.86.148: Undo revision 306751 by 172.68.102.199 (talk) Stupid vandal

{{comic
| number = 2508
| date = August 27, 2021
| title = Circumappendiceal Somectomy
| image = circumappendiceal_somectomy.png
| titletext = Some personal news: After treating my first case a few years ago with antibiotics, I can report that I have now had appendicitis for the second and--unless something extremely unexpected happened with the surgery--final time.
}}

==Explanation==

In normal medicine, {{w|appendectomy}} is the surgical removal of an {{w|appendix}}. The purpose of the appendix is not fully understood, believed to be a reservoir for a human's gut microbiome. However if an appendix is swelling, it comes with risk of bursting and causing massive damage through internal bleeding and septic bacterial infection. In such cases the appendix may be partially removed through surgery.

Breaking down the comic's title: circum- means "around," -appendiceal means "the appendix," som(a)- means "the body," and -ectomy means "removal." Therefore, a circumappendiceal somectomy would be "a removal of the body from around the appendix." This appears to be the procedure that the doctor in the comic is describing.

The joke is that such a procedure is functionally identical to a typical appendectomy, the removal of the appendix from the body - just viewed from a different perspective. It humorously implies that the entire body of the patient is the problematic part to be removed, leaving the appendix behind. It should be noted, though, that the procedure is identical only if it's done without disrupting the integrity of the body. There are situations in which an essential part is removed from a damaged or unimportant system by dismantling the system, piece by piece, leaving the part behind. Obviously, this would not be an advisable method for treating {{w|appendicitis}}. {{Citation needed}}

The title text provides personal insight into the comic. It appears [[Randall]] has gotten appendicitis before, which may have been the inspiration of [[2147: Appendicitis]] and was treated using antibiotics instead of surgery. However, his appendix became inflamed again, and this time it was removed. Randall's experience is not uncommon, as a [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32074268/ 2020 study] found that nearly 40% of patients treated with antibiotics for appendicitis required an appendectomy for recurrent appendicitis within 7 years. However, this should be the final time, as it is unlikely to get appendicitis without an appendix.{{Citation needed}} However, he does not rule out the possibility that something "extremely unexpected" happened during the surgery which could cause him to suffer from appendicitis again. Possible candidates for such an extremely unexpected event could include the surgeon faking the removal of Randall's appendix and leaving it intact, or removing only part of it, removing Randall's appendix but transplanting someone else's appendix into him instead, or even the appendix's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_(biology) spontaneous regeneration]. While most of these possibilities are absurd, stump appendicitis, in which appendicitis occurs in remnant of the appendix that remains after surgery really does occur in 1 in 50,000 cases according to the article [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1079652/ Appendicitis after appendicectomy - NCBI].

==Transcript==
:[Cueball is sitting with legs out over the edge of an examination table, hugging his stomach, likely because of stomach pains. A doctor in lab coat and a surgical head cap is standing next to the table speaking to Cueball, one arm stretched out towards him.]
:Doctor: Normally we would remove your appendix from your body.
:Doctor: But thanks to new surgical techniques, we're now able to remove your entire body from around your appendix!

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Characters with hats]]
[[Category:Medicine]]

Talk:599: Apocalypse

2023-02-24T15:45:12Z

172.70.86.148: Undo revision 306746 by 172.68.102.199 (talk) Stupid vandal

Imagine the result if the ressurected Erdős also appears in that proposed short film with Bacon. They'd both immediately get Erdős–Bacon numbers of 1, for themselves, and then every traditionally Erdős-numbered person ''and'' every single Bacon-numbered person would be guaranteed to end up with an Erdős–Bacon number of no more than their existing (Erdős|Bacon) number plus one! It would make a mockery of the entire system!!! ...and ''that's'' why the end of the world is a Bad ThingTM [[Special:Contributions/178.105.100.250|178.105.100.250]] 18:42, 23 May 2013 (UTC)
:(Because there are pedants out there, I wish to immediately acknowledge the intrinsic error in such a statement... Anyone who hasn't acted XOR hasn't co-authored a paper can't get a finite Bacon||Erdős number to add to their finite Erdős||Bacon number, and someone who co-authored a paper with someone who acted with a second Baconised person cannot count that particular link as part of either chain, unless otherwise qualified, and therefore would count for both... Although the intermediary person might get a chance to connect to both if the original guy gets Erdős-connected by a different route. But way to ruin my own joke.)
:((Oh, and my Bacon number is no more than 3, by way of an uncredited film appearance alongside Ian McKellan. I haven't checked to see if anyone else that's relevent has less than his presumed value of 2, but I'm not Erdőlised at all yet. Maybe that's my next goal in life. I know someone with an E-number of <=3, but obviously that's not enough to be ''worthy'' of geting an EB# of 7 or less for myself. [[Special:Contributions/178.105.100.250|178.105.100.250]] 19:15, 23 May 2013 (UTC) ))

Without the title text it could be seen as a reference to Erdös' signature. Erdős used to sign things pgom (poor great old man) then ld (living dead) then ad (archaeological discovery) then ld again (legally dead) then cd (counts dead) so it could be them trying to see if he'd sign living dead. FlyingPiggy {{unsigned|FlyingPiggy}}

Because this website does not usually take a position regarding religion or the lack of religion, it may be that the moderator has failed to realize that the explanation section pertaining to the biblical concept of Apocalypse is not universally accepted. Not even close to being universally accepted. There are a number of other theological views from those who believe in the authenticity of the Bible's message which would disagree with this "explanation." [[Special:Contributions/162.158.122.120|162.158.122.120]] 17:40, 11 December 2019 (UTC)

I got [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/356:_Nerd_Sniping nerd sniped] trying to figure out what the summation in panel 5 (<big>∑</big>ni=0ik1/i) is supposed to be. It turns out the first term (where i = 0) comes out to 0k/0, which is undefined for all k. It follows that the sum itself is only defined when n < 0, i.e. when it's an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_sum empty sum]. However, if we cancel the 1/i with a factor of i, we get <big>∑</big>ni=0ik-1, which is defined when n < 0 or k ≥ 1. Here's an [https://www.desmos.com/calculator/ayacpkgqd3 interactive version] I made in Desmos. [[User:Hhhguir|Hhhguir]] ([[User talk:Hhhguir|talk]]) 23:47, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

Talk:2741: Wish Interpretation

2023-02-24T15:43:16Z

172.70.86.148: Undo revision 306744 by 172.70.90.100 (talk) As original author (172.71.178.65), I already made enough "punz" for my own needs, already. And "UZ" doesn't make sense for 'Ewess'-voicing.

To all you people reading the discussion, why can't I add my own person page? I mean, is a year too new? I think I know, [[User:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|(but I'm not completely sure.)]] ([[User talk:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|talk]]) 23:29, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
:Oh, you have to have an old enough account to make one? I had been wondering how to. [[User:Thexkcdnerd|Thexkcdnerd]] ([[User talk:Thexkcdnerd|talk]]) 00:02, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::To "No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO": I have granted your wish, hope that will teach you a valuable lesson. If the Thexkcdnerd or any one else need the same favor just write me a message on my page --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:06, 24 February 2023 (UTC).

Ironically, a banknote created by a genie would be counterfeit, although the odds of legal trouble over $20 are nonetheless low. 23:43, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
:It doesn't have to be. The genie could take one away from someone, or just get one that's been lost. Also, the sentence for counterfeiting is the same regardless of the denomination. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 00:31, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:The sentence for counterfeiting may be the same but the probability someone would actually go through the trouble of prosecuting you for $20 is much less than say $10,000 [[Special:Contributions/172.70.214.151|172.70.214.151]] 03:04, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::The US Treasury Dept. prosecutes every case it can prove. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 04:06, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:::So 2 things: First of all they need to prove it. For that someone has to notice. Not every 20-Dollar-note will be scanned, and I guess the genie could make a pretty good copy (if he needs to copy it). Also noone said US-Dollar. The Genie could make a twist and use one of over 20 other currencies called dollar. Not sure if US Treasury Dept. would be interested in that :D by the way, the eastern caribean dollar has the short "XCD" - does anyone think that a thousand of those would be labeled XkCD? --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 13:13, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::::Or he could use Monopoly money. Or Geniedollars. He never said it would be legal tender, after all.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.148|172.70.86.148]] 14:42, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:::::For me, Monopoly Money has always been in £s (the board I always used going from Old Kent Road to Mayfair, naturally), though I've noticed that online (hyperinternational) representations, that I see in game-ads, now seem to use a special "barred-M" currency symbol (to copy how £, €, ¥ and $ are variously barred versions of L, E, Y and S).
:::::What Cueball-genie would use is an interesting phosophical question. I suspect he just gets whatever he needs (for personal use) out of petty cash and settles it up later. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 15:47, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::Yes, I've read some story where a wish-granting entity generated money by re-printing money lost in some catastrophe (like, burned down, sunk in ship or something). Technically, such banknote is counterfeit, but it's impossible to prove it. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:58, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
:::A all powerful genie could make a 20 dollar bill that is now valid without taking it from anyone. Just making a new one and changing reality so it is one of the "real" bills. Also after all the trouble with Black Hat and the Genie offering the bill I'm sure it is valid. Suggesting he has his own money it ridiculous. What should he use those for? I'm sure it is a perfectly valid 20 dollar bill. And the discussion above is irrelevant for such a powerful genie. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:18, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
::::What would he have it for? For buying his frappegenieos, obviously.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.56|172.70.85.56]] 09:08, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

That's cool. Try https://what-if.xkcd.com/23/. Part 1. I need a new signature. [[User:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|(but I'm not completely sure.)]] ([[User talk:No Idea If There's A Character Limit LMAO|talk]]) 23:46, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

I would (as the genie) just teleport Black Hat to the desert. No other trickery or devastation needed. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 00:34, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

The oldest "Wish that I wish I didn't wish" I am personally aware of is Midas turning everything he touched into gold, including the food he tried to eat and his beloved daughter. Personally, I'd wish that the genie teach me a lesson. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 03:16, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

It's kinda funny how a citation is needed for claiming that wishing rain doesn't exist is bad because Randall will just cover it in "What If 3" 20:59, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
:He already replaced the rain with candy in What If 2. --[[Special:Contributions/162.158.129.151|162.158.129.151]] 07:28, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::Citation needed is used way too much{{citation needed}} and we are already two that have removed two of those from the explanation. It is rarely funny{{citation needed}} and should really only be used when a citation is needed{{citation needed}}. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:18, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

The proper way of teaching Black Hat a lesson would be twisting his wish to make it beneficial to humanity. [[User:Tkopec|Tkopec]] ([[User talk:Tkopec|talk]]) 08:20, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

"And I want you to put it in my house." / [POOF!] - "Here, I turned your house into a Klein bottle."
[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.39|172.71.160.39]] 08:25, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:That would better satisfy "And I want my house to contain it", from one single-step literalist perspective... Wishes-gone-strange ''usually'' work on the basis of the 'laziest' misinterpretation (with or without the intention of mallice) that doesn't require too much reinterpretation.
:But how to misinterpret "put it in my house"? Hmmm... Nothing to suggest that it must stay there. Perhaps everything is going to be squeezed in through the front door and (Niagra Straw-like) eventually pushes most out of the back door. The house structure (but not fixtures and fittings) magically strengthened to continue being houselike, even as whatever the back yard is like (before it gets its own turn of being sequentially transported through) fills up with mountains (literally!) of the resulting wreckage/mishmash.
:But not sure if the house itself is not already "in the house", i.e. its structure, to be exempt by prior "in"ness (if not ownership)... I'm not a genie, and have not gone through the rather extensive training/job-orientation that they clearly go through. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.34|172.70.90.34]] 14:56, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::Wouldn't the simplest thing be to just turn the house inside-out?[[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.151|172.70.91.151]] 16:48, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:::"I've turned your house inside-out, and we redefine 'inside' and 'outside'. Everything, including the house itself, is within the 'outside' surface of the house." Except the small amount of air 'outside', of course. See also the "Asylum" in Douglas Adams's ''So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish''. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 16:55, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
::::This idea has already been used by Randall in [[2403: Wrapping Paper]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:20, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

I had a good laugh when I saw [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2741:_Wish_Interpretation&diff=prev&oldid=306692 one of these 'corrections']. US English mandates "fulfill", where the UK/etc English version is "fulfil", yet it also goes the other way and uses words like "reveler" where most (all?) other versions of English would prefer "reveller".
 And would hope that, whenever words get USified, the editor involved realises (or "realizes", yet surprisingly not ever "realizez"!) that they aren't actually correcting typos (like they sometimes comment), merely relocalising the wordz.. sorry.. ''words''! :P [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.65|172.71.178.65]] 15:21, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:...--[[User:JLZ0kTC5|JLZ0kTC5]] ([[User talk:JLZ0kTC5|talk]]) 01:02, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

In https://xkcd.com/1086/, it's shown that Black Hat gained the ability to wish on his eyelashes via wish; and if his wish on February 6th is anything to go by it's likely that whichever entity granted that wish deliberately misinterprets wishes in much the same way as this genie wants to. Should this be mentioned in the explanation? --[[User:A Stingray|A Stingray]] ([[User talk:A Stingray|talk]]) 19:47, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

Curious - if you put all the objects of the world's surface into Black Hat's house, would that be a neutron star, or would it get to a micro black hole? {{unsigned ip|172.70.85.56|19:49, 23 February 2023}}
:The Schwarzschild radius of the whole Earth is less than 1cm, so we can say for sure that an accumulation of 'just' all things upon its surface into a volume the size of any house would be far short of gravitational collapse into a singularity.
:I don't offhand know how much stuff there actually will be, thoug. We could start by extrapolating from [https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/science-and-health/2018/5/29/17386112/all-life-on-earth-chart-weight-plants-animals-pnas something like this] to work out how dense a packing you'd need in any given volume of house.
:Likely still not anywhere near neutronium level, I'm guessing, because a tablespoon of neutron star apparently is the mass of Mt Everest, and you could fit a lot of tablespoons (or pour a lot of tablespoons'-worth of stuff into, though the distinction itself hardly matters) into even the smallest "bedsit" living space. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.128|172.70.86.128]] 21:01, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
:an Earth-mass neutron star wold be 305m in diameter (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star#Density_and_pressure). If you compress that down to the size of a typcal house, it would collapse into a black hole (question 3 here: https://www.astro.umd.edu/~miller/teaching/questions/neutron.html therefor if you have a house-size neutron star and add enough mass to make an earth-mass neutron star, it would collapse to a black hole). Ergo, if you have earth-mass matter in the space of a house, it would immediately become a singularity, and collapse down to the size of a coin. however, there is also another possibility, depending on how the genie adds the mass to the house. If the genie simple adds matter to the house, if slow enough it would start to undergo fusion and radiate the energy away. Third possibility. There is no known process to get neutronium except in supernovae, so we have to assume the genie will simply start with a house-sized amount of neutronium, and added mass. This would quickly form a VERY SMALL black hole. Adding mass from here would put the material in the BH's accretion disk; some would fall in, some would stay in the disk, and some would radiate away. - Weylin Piegorsch [[Special:Contributions/172.70.34.186|172.70.34.186]] 03:22, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
::Everything in the world could mean the entire universe too. And even if just the Earth, what then about Earth it self? If threes are things then what about rocks? If rocks are things then what about molten rocks? And if that's a thing then the entire Earth should be in the house. Still it would not become a black hole. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:18, 24 February 2023 (UTC)
:::If it's everything in the XKCD world, then it's all 2-dimensional, so would have no mass. The genie could just colour in Black Hat's house solid black (the blackest black there is) and erase everything else XKCD from existence, including Black Hat himself. And the genie. Of course, that would meet essentially the same problem as the 'never rain' scenario.[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.101|172.70.90.101]] 09:17, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

Talk:2741: Wish Interpretation

2023-02-23T14:42:52Z

172.70.86.148:

Talk:1956: Unification

2023-02-16T12:53:51Z

172.70.86.148:

The 10^31 years in the title text is a clear reference to the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_decay proton decay], with the proton expected to have a half-life between 10^31 and 10^36 years. But so far no evidence for this decay has been found, which is incompatible with the results given by various unified theories. So Cuarón is preventing the unification of this comics' fundamental forces of nature like the proton is preventing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Unified_Theory GUTs]. (Also, even the physics part has several layers of unification, the current one, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Unified_Theory GUTs], and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_everything TOEs]) [[Special:Contributions/141.101.99.113|141.101.99.113]] 11:23, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

I know this isn't the place for it.. but.. why not Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays? It is literally President's Day weekend. [[User:Jacky720|That's right, Jacky720 just signed this]] ([[User talk:Jacky720|talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Jacky720|contribs]]) 22:00, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

;Marvel?
Where is the unification of Marvel with Disney as well? I know, if you put in all the companies that Disney has merged with/bought over the years, it would take up way more room than the comic will allow. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 14:50, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

I think Randall missed "The Force" and "Midi-chlorians"! [[User:Neurozero|Neurozero]] ([[User talk:Neurozero|talk]]) 17:07, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

We have a statutory holiday in British Columbia called Family Day; it is on the second Monday of February. Other provinces have a similar holiday, though some with different names, on the third Monday of February. Alberta, the province next to British Columbia calls theirs Family Day. My joke has been that they should split the different and have Family Day on Valentine's Day. Apparently, though, British Columba will be changing the observance of Family Day to the third Monday in February: another unification. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.216.220|108.162.216.220]] 23:34, 17 February 2018 (UTC) Gene Wirchenko genew@telus.net

Which came first? The Proton or the Universe? [[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]]) 17:49, 20 February 2018 (UTC)
: The Universe, but not by much. The first protons should have appeared somewhere in the first 10-6 seconds. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 06:04, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

I personally would be scared of a unification of the two Germanys and Strong Force [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.131|108.162.221.131]] 04:29, 30 May 2018 (UTC) (Anonymous)

Shouldn't this be an incomplete explanation? There are empty table cells. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 00:40, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
: As you're back with another point (below). ...no, there are no empty table cells (nor were there, as you wrote this). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.148|172.70.86.148]] 12:53, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

Hmm ... "The same type of tanks have been used to detect neutrinos." Actually, if I recall, it's not the same ''type'' of tanks, it's the very same tanks. For example, the Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan is mostly known for detecting neutrinos, but has also been used to search for proton decay. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 12:38, 16 February 2023 (UTC)