explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2948: Electric vs Gas

2024-06-21T08:01:06Z

172.70.86.176:

{{comic
| number = 2948
| date = June 19, 2024
| title = Electric vs Gas
| image = electric_vs_gas_2x.png
| imagesize = 284x385px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that's the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a HYDROGEN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE RUNNING A GENERATOR. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

Internal combustion engines (ICEs) are the most common technology used to propel motor vehicles. In US vernacular, the most common motor fuel is known as "{{w|gasoline}}", or "gas" for short, leading to these engines being referred to as "gas engines". Gasoline is a product of petroleum refinement, leading to the name "petrol" being used in other dialects.

Electric motors would seem the more obvious method for propelling a vehicle, and as early as 1885 were an actual form of motor car engine with which the fledgling internal combustion engine had to compete. Despite this early popularity, over most of the 20th century electric motors were sidelined in everyday car design, as supplying the electricity was considered to be impractical for most forms of transportation. Modern forms are rapidly rising in popularity, and now constitute 18% of all global vehicle sales. [[Randall]] has long been a strong proponent of electric vehicles.

In this strip, [[White Hat]] claims to be comparing the pros and cons of electric motors and gas engines. The joke is that every point he makes goes in favor of electric motors. Despite it being posed as a dilemma, it may be very clear which side of the debate White Hat is promoting. On the other hand, it may indicate that one of the things we might consider a pro in electric motors (the instantaneous power now available, exceeding that of many non-electric engines) he would consider a problem — perhaps more accurately, a problem with the ''drivers'' of such vehicles — recklessly using the enhanced capabilities to accelerate to high speeds at all opportunities, whether safe to do so or not.

The strip offers the following points in favor of electric motors:

* "Cleaner and more efficient". Internal combustion engines produce and vent harmful combustion products and toxic chemicals, while electric motors produce no emission byproducts at the point of use. The efficiency of both gas and electric motors vary, but the typical ICE vehicle in the US converts around 25% of available energy into motion, while the typical electric vehicle is in the neighborhood of 80%. It should be noted that all of this refers to the motors only, and ignores how the fuel and electricity are produced, or the wider environmental impact of the vehicle. Even when considering inefficiencies in the source production and transmission and storage and release of energy, battery-driven electric vehicles are generally more efficient than internal combustion propelled vehicles[https://www.factcheck.org/2024/02/electric-vehicles-contribute-fewer-emissions-than-gasoline-powered-cars-over-their-lifetimes/].

* "More powerful". Electric motors are able to deliver a lot of power from a small motor ''if'' an ample energy supply is available, and can do so 'on demand', often far quicker than a fuel-powered engine that has to put its power through a gearbox in order to service a wide range of road velocities, from standstill to the eventual top speed. Due to battery limitations, short or partial runtime use cases (such as dragsters, hand tools, yard tools, toys and electric scooters) net the most benefit from the small size of a high-powered electric motor.

* "Annoyingly loud". Internal combustion engines, by their nature, produce significant noise. Despite noise attenuation measures such as mufflers, they contribute significantly to urban noise. Properly designed electric motors are nearly silent. In particular, turbo-charger blow-off valves make particular noises that are completely lacking in an all-electric vehicle being driven at a similar performance level. This might legitimately be considered a problem, though, when everyone is used to a rapidly approaching vehicle providing a very noisy warning of its approach. EV makers have sometimes added [https://www.businessinsider.com/electric-car-ev-fake-engine-sound-hyundai-dodge-toyota-2023-7 fake ICE noises] to appeal to older drivers, and in the U.S. and some other countries, EVs are required to have {{w|Electric_vehicle_warning_sounds|warning sounds}} at low speeds for pedestrian safety.

* "WAY less torque available at standstill". Internal combustion engines need to continually operate within a specific range of rotational speeds, which means that a complex system of transmission gearing is needed to convert this motion into the specific speeds needed at the wheels. When starting from a standstill, this means that torque must be applied to the wheels relatively gradually to avoid stalling the engine. In addition, when a vehicle is standing still, the motor is typically idling at (very) low speed and must be sped up before it produces significant acceleration. Electric motors, in contrast, generally produce their peak torque when at a standstill. This results in electric vehicles having significantly better acceleration and engine responsiveness. Again, this could cause a legitimate problem with drivers changing from ICE to electric motors, because the new cars accelerate more than the driver is used to and provide different feedback. The audible clues of gear changes, whether from automatic or manual systems, are part and parcel of what many people have grown up with and come to rely on in anticipating what might need paying attention to.

The strip offers no points in favor of internal combustion (gas) motors, even those framed as if they were such.

It should be noted that White Hat is deliberately confining his arguments to electric vs gas ''motors'' rather than electric or gas-powered ''vehicles''. Doing so ignores the basic reason why internal combustion vehicles have long dominated transportation in certain specific countries: hydrocarbon fuels are a very dense and fairly easy to handle form of energy ''storage''. However worldwide, bicycle have been outselling cars [https://www.bikeradar.com/features/bike-vs-car-the-sales-race|since at least the WWII]. Providing electrical power to a moving vehicle requires either that the vehicle remain in contact with a power line, like a train, a tramway, a subway does, or a high-capacity battery and the ability to recharge that battery in a reasonable amount of time. More popular in the USA is a hybrid system, where a combustion engine provides at least some of the power to an electric motor, which was impractical until comparatively recently. Other methods, such as hydrogen fuel cells (a form of "combustion" that can be used more directly to form electricity), have been proposed, but remain niche, due to various barriers to adoption, or experimental. In the EU, the sale of new ICE cars is banned from 2035 in an effort to move to EVs.

A more comprehensive comparison would include the cons of electric cars. Especially in the United States, this topic is highly contentious for political, economic, engineering, and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal tribal] reasons. A quick look at the edit history of this page will confirm that. Issues raised typically include:

* Higher cost of purchase (primarily due to the cost of batteries and, in the USA, now a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs), although partially offset by lower costs of operation
* Long charging times compared to refilling a gas tank (there are some approaches which mitigate this by operating either very high powered chargers or a battery swap model, rather than charging in-car, but these are not widely adopted)
* Relatively limited range ([https://ev-database.org/compare/electric-vehicle-longest-range 100-400 miles per charge] as of 2024)
* Shortened range in hot weather and significantly shortened range in cold weather (although ICE vehicles also have this problem)
* Limited charging infrastructure in some places (although ICE vehicles also have this problem)
* Higher vehicle weight, and resulting higher particulate emissions (from tires, but not brakes, because EVs use of regenerative braking reduces wear on their traditional brakes)
* Reliance on various mineral and metal extraction industries in the building of batteries
* Issues disposing of/recycling batteries at end of life
* Increased demand on electricity production

Advancing technologies, political policies, and economic realities are rapidly changing the relevance and seriousness of these points. The current adoption rate of EVs (well under 50%, even in California) is an indication that the general population thinks the cons still win.

Other real (or asserted) pros of electric cars aren't mentioned, which is still not the point of the comic
* Lower costs of operation (partially offset by higher costs of purchase)
* Can "fill" them at home or while parked without having to stay with them (partially negates the "long charging times" con)
* Higher reliability
* Lower carbon footprint, and reduced dependence on the fossil fuel industry

Future economic and political policies may make fueling and maintenance of gas powered personal cars an issue. If in 10 years 100% of cars sold are electric, then after the average 12 year vehicle lifespan of fuel cars has ended it may be that legacy fuel stations are harder to find (and recharging stations easier) in comparison to the other type. At the 20-year mark, most gasoline-fueled cars will be gone and the economic value of providing ubiquitously available fuel to a dwindling number of cherished hold-out 'classic' vehicles will have forced the supply chains to pivot. Maintenance for such cars may become an art of the past and finding a specialized mechanic may be necessary. (As, until recently, it would have been difficult to find an independent EV-qualified mechanic.)

==Trivia==
The etymology of "gasoline" is disputed: it may derive from "gas", or perhaps from the brand-name fuel "Cazeline" or "Cazelline" sold by a man called John Cassell; "Petrol" has also been a registered brand name for other businesses' motor-fuel products.

==Transcript==
:[White Hat, with his palm raised, is talking to Cueball.]
:White Hat: Electric motors and gas engines each have their pros and cons.
:White Hat: On one hand, electric motors are cleaner and more efficient. On the other hand, electric motors are more powerful.
:White Hat: So it's hard to say which is better overall.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Engineering]]
[[Category:Climate change]]

Talk:2937: Room Code

2024-06-12T20:41:30Z

172.70.86.176:

Obviously, for many of us it would be more helpful as a mnemonic for a slightly older relative born on May 18, 2002. But since the author is American, it is of course reasonable for him not to have mentioned this. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.235|162.158.134.235]] 20:36, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
:ISO-8601 FTW.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 14:05, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::Do "many" of you use YYMMDD though? YY rather than YYYY? Many, many of us use DDMMYY though. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 20:46, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
::::UK resident here. I have only used YYYYMMDD at the start of file names to manually produce versioning order.[[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:::::Another Brit. Having dealt with transatlantic stuff, I switched to YYYY/MM/DD exclusively due to being utterly fed up with trying to work out when an ambiguous date (like in this example, or the infamous 9th of November) was supposed to be. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.131.158|172.71.131.158]] 21:40, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
::::::This particular Brit (also veteran of Y2K, at the same time as regularly "talkin' to 'Merkins" and having to make sure I don't confuzzle them either with what a Rightpondian would write or by them ''assuming'' that I'm writing in Rightpondian when I'm not) continues to tend to use DD/Mmm/YYYY for anything with a human-reading focus. Or something like YYYYMMDD(-hh(mm(ss))), as per RIIW's situational reasoning where dumb alphanumeric ordering might dominate in primarily computer-reading scenarios. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.164|172.69.79.164]] 23:32, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
:::::::I know that people in the Netherlands use YYMMDD for dates - I used to work for Philips research (a Dutch company) - and they used that format everywhere. It's actually VERY logical because if you write a decimal number 12,345 you put the most significant digit first...so YYMMDD does the same thing - the year being the more significant. One GREAT thing about that representation is that a simple numerical sort will get things into date-wise ordering. I've heard that some countries write addresses that way too: USA / Texas / Dallas / MainStreet / 123...again, putting the most significant information first. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.140.153|162.158.140.153]] 14:39, 30 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Yes, add me to the "2nd of May" club. (Or whatever young relative I can retrospectively induce to join, anyway.) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.165|172.69.79.165]] 22:58, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Yes, of course DDMMYY is a thing as well (although I would have expected dots or something), I might have mentioned that. Here in Sweden, YYMMDD is very common, along with YYYY-MM-DD, D/M YYYY and YYYYMMDD (the latter increasingly so, very rare before y2k). YY-MM-DD and D/M -YY are rather less common (after y2k). Formats with dots or Roman numerals are almost unheard of, as are middle-endianness and anything with slashes before or after the year. Source: subjective experience.) (Of course, many Swedes also realize that months have names that alleviate ambiguity.) [[Special:Contributions/162.158.134.242|162.158.134.242]] 04:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::::Now I want some kind of joke about Your Mileage May Vary, but it's some variation of YYDMDM. (Yes Your Date May Deviate Massively?)
::::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 14:12, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:::My birthday is actually May 18, XXXX, and I am American, but I always use XX0518 for a 6 number code.
::Which brings up [[2562:_Formatting_Meeting]] (I ~~don't know~~ figured out how to do internal links) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.22.80|172.71.22.80]] 20:52, 24 May 2024 (UTC)
::::I know that State Side, they say that as you write May 2nd 2024, then it's right to have MMDDYYYY, but they celebrate the 4th of July! However, in the UK we are likely to date letters 2nd May, 2024. [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:::::Now I want some kind of joke about Your Mileage May Vary, but it's some variation of YYDMDM. (Yes Your Date May Deviate Massively?)
:::::[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 14:12, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::::::YMMD (Your Mileage May Differ) {{unsigned ip|162.158.129.253|08:52, 27 May 2024}}
:::''"I don't know how to do internal links"'' At the very bottom of the Editing page, "'''Editing help (opens in new window)'''", which goes to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Links and you want "'''Internal links'''" --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 00:11, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::::In case it helps, I've just [[User talk:42.book.addict#Depends what you wanted to do...|written something, at least so long as that user doesn't delete or change my contribution]] which summarises (badly?) the general gamut of linking options you might need to employ here. It's tuned to explainxkcd usage, rather than the full (in their own way) and perhaps more precise wikipedia standards that the above link gives. And it was written on the spur of the moment, not really so carefully edited. But FYI. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.38.70|162.158.38.70]] 21:04, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
::Also related [[1179:_ISO_8601]] --[[Special:Contributions/172.71.160.93|172.71.160.93]] 09:09, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

wait...so y'all actually don't need help with remembering numbers? oh. I can usually memorize like 10 long strings of random numbers almost instantly by finding patterns through them. order through chaos? [[User:42.book.addict|42.book.addict]] ([[User talk:42.book.addict|talk]]) 02:13, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:These patterns are a kind of mnemonic, duh. Only works if you're comfortable enough with numbers (to be able to find some pattern in any digit string), otherwise one should use a more familiar association. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.194.201|172.68.194.201]] 14:58, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

I usually remember numbers with their pattern on computer or telephone keys. When I recite π, I start moving my hand through the air at some point. Here the even position digits are ascending in the middle and the others are 001, so quite easy. [[User:Fabian42|Fabian42]] ([[User talk:Fabian42|talk]]) 03:39, 25 May 2024 (UTC)
:I remember random information by putting it in my phone! [[User:RIIW - Ponder it|RIIW - Ponder it]] ([[User talk:RIIW - Ponder it|talk]]) 07:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

He forgot to dot the question mark. 🤭
--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.74.68|162.158.74.68]] 09:41, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

I always have a pen to write on my hand for this reason tbh [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 03:31, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
:The trouble is, most people couldn't do it for this doorcode. It has six digits, but the typical hand only ever has five! [[Special:Contributions/172.69.194.207|172.69.194.207]] 09:03, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
::Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.194.178|172.68.194.178]] 09:50, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
::.207, you made me laugh. Good job. (genuinely) [[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 21:09, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
::The average hand has less than 5 digits. [[User:SDSpivey|SDSpivey]] ([[User talk:SDSpivey|talk]]) 01:28, 28 May 2024 (UTC)
:::Average =/= Typical (unless it's a modal average).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.177|172.70.90.177]] 08:13, 28 May 2024 (UTC)
::::Hey, there's a comic about this. [[2696: Precision vs Accuracy]] -[[User:Psychoticpotato|Psychoticpotato]] ([[User talk:Psychoticpotato|talk]]) 21:20, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

The room code 020518 as listed consists of prime numbers 2 and 5 (with 3 missing). however both are preceded by a zero. The 18 is interpreted as non prime (it is not) but the 2x3x3 seems a bit far off from any prime. Would the alternative explanation 0-5 is a zero followed by the prime number five --- followed by 1 - 8 which is 0+1 and 7+1 which could be logical continuation of 0+0-5+0, 0+1-7+1, followed by e.g. 0+2, 11+2 etc. - as such series sometime go. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.46.193|172.70.46.193]] 14:10, 26 May 2024 (UTC)
:It may be "far off" from being prime in a factorization sense, but it's quite close to being a prime because it's right next to both 17 and 19, which are both prime. [[User:AdmiralMemo|Admiral Memo]] ([[User talk:AdmiralMemo|talk]]) 11:56, 29 May 2024 (UTC)
::What would be interesting would be to find 'twinned Mersennes', i.e. specifically that (2^n)-1 ''and'' (2^n)+1 are both prime. (Currently, I can only identify n=2 as valid for that, but I'm not immediately aware of any reason why (2^n)+1 might not be equally valid as (possible) prime, nor why it might only pair with a non-prime (2^n)-1 'mersenne miss' number.) By the above logic, (2^n) iteself would quite close to being a prime (being another prime-pair's intermediate) whilst being quite conspicuously factorisable to the ''n''th order. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.178.131|172.71.178.131]] 13:57, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

I remember my 628496 was my room code for a while back at uni, very easy to remember as the first three Perfect Numbers {{unsigned ip|172.70.163.121|08:25, 28 May 2024}}

It's three prime numbers if you assume two digits per number and base 9. Translating that to base 10 would be: 2, 5, 17 {{unsigned|Cwallenpoole|18:50, 12 June 2024}}

977: Map Projections

2024-06-11T12:02:42Z

172.70.86.176: /* Hobo–Dyer */

{{comic
| number = 977
| date = November 14, 2011
| title = Map Projections
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = map_projections.png
| titletext = What's that? You think I don't like the Peters map because I'm uncomfortable with having my cultural assumptions challenged? Are you sure you're not... ::puts on sunglasses:: ...projecting?
}}
{{TOC}}
==Explanation==
{{w|Map projection}}, or how to represent the spherical Earth surface onto a flat support (paper, screen...) to have a usable map, is a long-time issue with very practical aspects (navigation, geographical shapes and masses visualization, etc.) as well as very scientific/mathematical ones, involving geometry or even abstract algebra among other things. There is no universal solution to this problem: Any 2D map projection will always distort in a way the spherical reality. Many projections have been proposed in various contexts, each intending to minimize distortions for specific uses (for nautical navigation, for aerial navigation, for landmass size comparisons, etc.) but having drawbacks from other points of view. Some of them are more frequently used than others in mass media and therefore more well-known than others, some are purely historical and now deprecated, some are very obscure, etc.

[[Randall]] suggests here the idea that someone's "favorite" map projection can reveal aspects of their personality, then goes through a series of them to show what they can mean.

He may actually believe that all map projections are in a way bad. This could be inferred from the fact that he much later began publishing a series of [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]].

An animated version of this comic, showing how the projections look when they are rotated, was uploaded [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O2CBgWshiM here.]
===Mercator===
[[File:MercatorProjection.jpg|frame|The Mercator projection]]
The {{w|Mercator projection}} was introduced by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. The main purpose of this map is to preserve compass bearings; for example 13 degrees east of north will be 13 degrees clockwise from the ray pointing toward the top of the map, at every point. A mathematical consequence is the mapping is conformal, i.e. if two roads meet at a certain angle on the surface of the Earth, they will meet at that same angle on the map. It also follows that at every point the vertical and horizontal scales are the same, so locally i.e. considering only a small part of the map, geographical features (shapes, angles) are well represented, which helps a lot in recognizing them on-the-field, or for local navigation in that small part only. For this reason, that projection (or a close variant) is used in several online mapping services (such as Google Maps), which means that it is frequently encountered by the general public. A straight line on the map corresponds to a course of constant bearing (direction), which was very useful for nautical navigation in the past (and thus made that projection very well-known).

However, from a global point of view, this projection is radically incorrect in how it shows the size of landmasses (for instance, Antarctica and Greenland seem gigantic), and furthermore, it always excludes a small region around each pole (otherwise the map would be of infinite height), so it doesn't provide a complete solution for the problem of map projection. The comic implies that people who like that projection aren't very interested with map issues, and typically use what they are offered without thinking much about it.

{{clear}}

===Van der Grinten===
[[File:VanDerGrintenProjection.jpg|frame|The Van der Grinten projection]]
The {{w|Van der Grinten projection}} is not much better than the Mercator. It was adopted by {{w|National Geographic}} in 1922 and was used until they updated to the Robinson projection in 1988.

The Van der Grinten projection is circular as opposed to the Mercator projection. The fictional person believes a circular map is more fitting to the real Earth's three-dimensional spherical nature because both are round. This belief fails to recognize that a two-dimensional circle has very little in common with the surface of a sphere, and thus this projection still causes a vast distortion of space and area. Because of this, Randall implies the Van der Grinten enthusiast to be optimistic and childishly simple-minded (e.g. "you like circles").

{{clear}}

===Robinson===
[[File:RobinsonProjection.jpg|frame|The Robinson projection]]
The {{w|Robinson projection}} was developed by {{w|Arthur H. Robinson}} as a map that was supposed to look nice and is often used for classroom maps. National Geographic switched to this projection in 1988, and used it for ten years, switching to the {{w|Winkel tripel projection|Winkel-Tripel}} in 1998.

{{w|The Beatles}} was a rock band that enjoyed great commercial success in the 1960s, and are widely considered the best act ever in the genre of popular music. The Beatles, coffee, and running shoes are all things that are very commonly enjoyed and largely uncontroversial, as well as being comforting. Liking these specific things suggests an ordinary, easygoing lifestyle paralleled by the projection.

{{clear}}

===Dymaxion===
[[File:DymaxionProjection.jpg|frame|The Dymaxion projection]]
Also called the Fuller Map, the {{w|Dymaxion map}} takes a sphere and projects it onto an icosahedron, that is a polyhedron with 20 triangular faces. It is far easier to unwrap an icosahedron than it is to unwrap a sphere into a 2D object and has very little skewing of the poles. {{w|Buckminster Fuller}} was an eccentric futurist who believed, for example, that world maps should allow no conception of "up" or "down". He was therefore more than happy to defy people's expectations about maps in the pursuit of mathematical accuracy.

Randall associates the projection to geek subculture and niche markets:
*{{w|Isaac Asimov}} was an American science-fiction writer, who (as well as publishing many textbooks) is considered the father of the modern concept of robots. He invented the {{w|Three Laws of Robotics}}. He also worked on more than 500 books throughout his career.
*{{w|XML}} is the eXtensible Markup Language. It is used to represent data in a format that machines can read and understand, as well as being human-readable. In practice, XML is cumbersome to read.
*{{w|Vibram FiveFingers|Toed shoes}} are a [[1065: Shoes|favorite]] of Randall's to pick on. In society they are seen as a {{w|geek}} clothing item.
*Brought to the world by {{w|Dean Kamen}}, the {{w|Segway PT}} was supposed to be a device that changed the way cities were built. In practice, it had the same problems as other novel personal transporters, such as the {{w|Sinclair C5}} many years earlier. Small, powered vehicles didn't fit neatly into the existing infrastructure for cars, bikes or pedestrians; using them on roads or sidewalks could be unsafe, illegal or both. Early versions of the Segway also cost more than a used car, such that they were never widespread enough to provoke legal or infrastructure changes. The devices found a small niche among law enforcement, mall/airport security and tour operators, rather than private owners. The former owner of {{w|Segway Inc.}}, the late {{w|Jimi Heselden}}, accidentally rode his Segway off a cliff in 2010. Ninebot, then owner of the Segway brand, announced in 2020 that the flagship 2-wheeled self-balancing vehicle would be discontinued.
*At the time of comic release, 3D goggles, nowadays widely known as {{w|Virtual reality headset|VR headsets}}, were considered a gimmick at best. The original idea is as old as 3D graphics, but it never really took off until mid-2010s. Earlier products were very unwieldy and offered poor graphics quality, so no one took this technology seriously.
*{{w|Dvorak Simplified Keyboard|Dvorak}} is an alternate keyboard layout to {{w|QWERTY}}. According to legend, QWERTY was invented to help keep manual typewriters from jamming (by placing the most used keys far from each other) but Dr. {{w|August Dvorak}} performed many studies and found the mathematically optimal keyboard layout to reduce finger travel for right handed typists. While some claim Dvorak is technically better than QWERTY, QWERTY had become the standard. Most keyboards were laid out in QWERTY format, but a lot of software exists to remap the keys to DVORAK for those interested in typing faster. Retraining the brain to use Dvorak takes perhaps a week. It has become a [[:Category:Dvorak|recurrent theme]] on xkcd.

{{clear}}

===Winkel-Tripel===
[[File:Winkel-TripelProjection.jpg|frame|The Winkel Tripel projection]]
Proposed by Oswald Winkel in 1921, the {{w|Winkel tripel projection}} tried to reduce a set of three (German: Tripel) main problems with map projections: area, direction, and distance. The {{w|Kavrayskiy VII projection|Kavrayskiy projection}} is very similar to the Winkel Tripel and was used by the USSR, but very few in the Western world know of it.

The comic links this projection to {{w|hipster}} subculture. The hipster stereotype is to avoid conforming to mainstream fashions. "Post-" refers to a variety of musical genres such as {{w|post-punk}}, {{w|post-grunge}}, {{w|post-minimalism}}, {{w|post-rock}}, etc. that branch off of other genres, and are generally considered less accessible than the genres that spawned them. Liking a genre just called "post-" implies that the listener prefers music that is less mainstream, and may have that as the only criterion for listening.

;Trivia
*In German "Winkel-Tripel-Projektion" means Winkel's triple projection, and therefore the hyphen shouldn't be there: "Winkel Tripel" or "Winkel tripel".
*This projection was later used in [[2242: Ground vs Air]].
{{clear}}

===Goode Homolosine===
[[File:GoodeHomolosineProjection.jpg|frame|The Goode Homolosine projection]]
The {{w|Goode homolosine projection}} takes a different approach to skewing a sphere into a roughly circular surface. An orange peel can be taken from an orange and flattened with fair success; this is roughly the procedure that {{w|John Paul Goode}} followed in creating this projection. Randall is suggesting that people who like this map also prefer relatively easy solutions to other things in life, despite those solutions having nuanced problems that are more difficult to address.

People often make arguments that if normal people ran the United States, then the US wouldn't be in the trouble it is. This is from the belief that career politicians are simply out to make money and will only act in the interest of their constituency when their continued easy life is threatened (usually around election time). While some form of this view is very common and probably pretty much correct, Randall is saying that someone who likes this map may take this to extremes.

Airline food is another, much maligned, problem. How do you store enough food to feed people on long airplane trips? What kind of food can be served in an enclosed, low-air-pressure environment? The common solution is to use some kind of prepackaged, reheated meal. Randall is saying that the people in favor of the Goode Homolosine wonder why the airlines don't simply order meals from the restaurants in the airport, store that food, and serve it, rather than using bland reheated food. However, this seemingly-obvious solution ignores how being in an airplane dulls your sense of taste. Airplane food is actually over seasoned for eating on the ground, meaning that if airlines switched to restaurant food it would probably taste even blander. There would also be issues with acquiring special meals (for example, vegetarian, Kosher, and Halal meals), especially if suitable restaurants were not in close range to the airport. Airport restaurants tend to also be more expensive than usual.

Older cars burned oil like mad fiends, and oil back then would become corrosive to the innards of an engine, so oil had to be changed often. But, with the introduction of synthetic motor oil and better designed engines, new cars only need their oil changed about every 10,000 to 15,000 miles. A common conspiracy theory is that modern automobile oil manufacturers still recommend that car owners change their oil every 3,000-5,000 miles to "drum" up more business, even though that frequency is unnecessary.

All of these references suggest that people who like the Goode Homolosine projection are fans of simple solutions to problems. However, while the solutions appear to be an easy, common-sense solutions, they all rely on over-simplifying the problem, and ignoring any problems introduced by the solution itself. For instance: the restaurants might have trouble making enough food for the whole plane, and it could get cold before being served; the air conditions [https://www.nbcnews.com/health/one-reason-airline-food-so-bad-your-own-tastebuds-6C10823522 aboard planes] can affect taste, so airlines say they optimize for this; there is no such thing as a "normal" person, and if there were, they would have less political experience than politicians, while remaining subject to the same pressures and problems with the larger political system; and the Goode Homolosine projection, while mostly resembling a flattened orange peel as suggested by the earlier analogy, does indeed cut down on distortion, but also has serious problems of its own, such as leaving huge gaps of nothingness between the continents, making distances across the oceans difficult to visualize, and splitting Greenland in half.

{{clear}}

===Hobo–Dyer===
[[File:Hobo-DyerProjection.jpg|frame|The Hobo–Dyer projection]]
The {{w|Hobo–Dyer projection}} was commissioned by Bob Abramms and Howard Bronstein and was drafted by Mick Dyer in 2002. It is a modified {{w|Behrmann projection}}. The goal was to be a more visually pleasing version of the Gall–Peters.

As is discussed in the Gall–Peters explanation, the Gall–Peters was developed to be equal area, so that historically colonised and economically disadvantaged areas nearer the equator are not diminished in area by the map projection, nor 'global north' areas enlarged.

Randall associates the Hobo–Dyer projection to "crunchy granola" — a stereotype associated with vegetarianism, environmental activism, anti-war activism, liberal political leanings, and some traces of {{w|hippie}} culture.

With feminism becoming mainstream and non-binary genders being more widely accepted, some have begun to invent gender-neutral pronouns so that when referring to a person whose gender is not known they cannot be offended by being referred to by the wrong pronouns. In {{w|Middle English}} 'they' and 'their' were {{w|Singular they|accepted genderless pronouns that could replace 'he', 'she'}} as well as be used to represent a crowd, but this usage is considered by some to be grammatically incorrect because of the plural/singular debate ([https://www.merriam-webster.com/video/the-awkward-case-of-his-or-her stupid Victorian Grammarians!]). There have been {{w|gender-neutral pronoun#Invented pronouns|many attempts at popularizing invented gender-neutral pronouns}} and they are beginning to achieve some degree of success in the mainstream.

{{clear}}

===Plate Carrée===
[[File:PlateCarreeProjection.jpg|frame|The Plate Carrée projection]]
Also known as the {{w|Equirectangular projection}}, it has apparently been in use since approximately 100 CE. The benefit of this projection is that latitude and longitude can be used as x,y coordinates. This makes it especially easy for computers to graph data on top of it.

According to the comic, the projection appeals to people who find much beauty in simplicity.

{{clear}}

===A Globe!===
[[File:GlobeProjection.jpg|frame|The Globe "projection"]]
In any good discussion there has to be at least one smart-ass.{{Citation needed}} This is a comic about map projections, that is, the science of taking a sphere and flattening it into 2 dimensions. The smart-ass believes that we shouldn't even try: a sphere is, tautologically, the perfect representation of a sphere.

To quote ''{{w|The Princess Bride}}'': "Yes, you're very smart. Shut up."

A globe is the "map projection" used by {{w|Google Earth}} when zoomed out.

Notably, what is depicted in the panel itself (the comic being 2D) is technically an {{w|orthographic map projection}}.

{{clear}}

===Waterman butterfly===
[[File:WatermanButterflyProjection.jpg|frame|The Waterman Butterfly projection]]
Similar to the Dymaxion, the {{w|Waterman butterfly projection}} turns a sphere into an octahedron, and then unfolds the net of the octahedron, which was devised by mathematician {{w|Waterman polyhedron|Steve Waterman}} based upon the work of {{w|Bernard J.S. Cahill}}.

Bernard Cahill published a [https://www.genekeyes.com/B.J.S._CAHILL_RESOURCE.html butterfly map] in 1909. Steve Waterman probably has the only extant "ready to go" map following the same general principles, though Gene Keys may not be far behind. Waterman has a poem with graphics in a similar vein to this xkcd comic that is worth reading.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120118095915/https://watermanpolyhedron.com/worldmap.html]

[https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/pcr.2016.48.issue-4/pcr-2016-0014/pcr-2016-0014.pdf Polyhedral projections] like Cahill, Dymaxion or Waterman typically offer better accuracy of size, shape and area than flat projections, at the expense of compass directionality, connectedness, and other complications.

The joke is that the person responding deeply understands map projections; anyone who knows of this projection is a person that Randall would like to get to know.

{{clear}}

===Peirce quincuncial===
[[File:PeirceQuincuncialProjection.jpg|frame|The Peirce Quincuncial projection]]
The {{w|Peirce quincuncial projection}} was devised by {{w|Charles Sanders Peirce}} in 1879 and uses {{w|complex analysis}} to make a {{w|conformal mapping}} of the Earth, that conforms except for four points which would make up the midpoints of sides and lie on equator (the equator is represented by a square and the corners connect the sides in the middle.)

{{w|Inception}} was a 2010 movie about {{w|meta}} {{w|lucid dream}}ing. It has a complex story that is difficult to follow and leaves the viewer with many questions at the end, and almost always needs to be watched multiple times to be understood.

The human brain is not well developed to deal with oddly obvious things. One example is that everyone has a skeleton, but everyone is surprised to see a part of their body represented by an X-ray. Another is the fascinating complexity of the human hand, a machine which is amazingly complex, driven by a complex interplay of electrical and chemical signals; yet is the size of the hand and so useful. A fascination with or fixation on {{tvtropes|ContemplatingYourHands|such thoughts}} is often associated with an altered state of mind brought on by marijuana consumption. Therefore, Randall may be implying that this map would appeal to stoners.

{{clear}}

===Gall–Peters===
[[File:Gall-PetersProjection.jpg|frame|The Gall–Peters projection]]
The {{w|Gall–Peters projection}} is mired in controversy, surprisingly for a map. {{w|James Gall}}, a 19th-century clergyman, presented this projection in 1855 before the {{w|British Association for the Advancement of Science}}. In 1967, the filmmaker {{w|Arno Peters}} created the same projection and presented it to the world as a "new invention" that put poorer, less powerful countries into their rightful proportions, (as opposed to the Mercator) during the US civil rights movement, when society was very concerned about social justice. Peters played the marketing game and got quite a few followers of his map by saying it had "absolute angle conformality," "no extreme distortions of form," and was "totally distance-factual". These claims were in fact false. The Mercator projection distorts size in favor of shape, and Gall-Peters distorts shape in favor of size, being especially inaccurate at the equator and the poles.

Anyone who loves such a politically charged map that has become popular by way of marketing stunts and false claims, Randall would rather not have anything to do with. Alternatively Randall just dislikes this map projection so much due to the above mentioned major inaccuracies, that he hates anyone who likes it.

{{clear}}

===Title text===
The title text makes a joke that goes to the familiar meme from ''{{w|CSI: Miami}}'', in which the star, David Caruso starts a sentence, then puts on his sunglasses and ends the sentence with a corny pun. In this case, the pun is on {{w|map projection}} and {{w|projection (psychology)|projection}} in psychology. Psychological projection is an unconscious defense mechanism wherein a person who is uncomfortable with their own impulses denies having them and attributes them to other people, and blames these people for these impulses. The Sunglasses internet meme has been used [[:Category:Puts on sunglasses|in other comics]] as well.

==Transcript==
:What your favorite
:'''Map Projection'''
:says about you
:[All of these are organized as Title, a copy of the particular projection underneath, and what it says about you under that.]

:*Mercator
:**You're not really into maps.
:*Van der Grinten
:**You're not a complicated person. You love the Mercator projection; you just wish it weren't square. The Earth's not a square, it's a circle. You like circles. Today is gonna be a good day!
:*Robinson
:**You have a comfortable pair of running shoes that you wear everywhere. You like coffee and enjoy The Beatles. You think the Robinson is the best-looking projection, hands down.
:*Dymaxion
:**You like Isaac Asimov, XML, and shoes with toes. You think the Segway got a bad rap. You own 3D goggles, which you use to view rotating models of better 3D goggles. You type in Dvorak.
:*Winkel-Tripel
:**National Geographic adopted the Winkel-Tripel in 1998, but you've been a W-T fan since ''long'' before "Nat Geo" showed up. You're worried it's getting played out, and are thinking of switching to the Kavrayskiy. You once left a party in disgust when a guest showed up wearing shoes with toes. Your favorite musical genre is "Post–".
:*Goode Homolosine
:**They say mapping the Earth on a 2D surface is like flattening an orange peel, which seems enough to you. You like easy solutions.You think we wouldn't have so many problems if we'd just elect ''normal'' people to Congress instead of Politicians. You think airlines should just buy food from the restaurants near the gates and serve ''that'' on board. You change your car's oil, but secretly wonder if you really ''need'' to.
:*Hobo-Dyer
:**You want to avoid cultural imperialism, but you've heard bad things about Gall-Peters. You're conflict-averse and buy organic. You use a recently-invented set of gender-neutral pronouns and think that what the world needs is a revolution in consciousness.
:*Plate Carrée <small>(Equirectangular)</small>
:**You think this one is fine. You like how X and Y map to latitude and longitude. The other projections overcomplicate things. You want me to stop asking about maps so you can enjoy dinner.
:*A Globe!
:**Yes, you're very clever.
:*Waterman Butterfly
:**Really? You know the Waterman? Have you seen the 1909 Cahill Map it's based— ...You have a framed reproduction at home?! Whoa. ...Listen, forget these questions. Are you doing anything tonight?
:*Peirce Quincuncial
:**You think that when we look at a map, what we really see is ourselves. After you first saw ''Inception'', you sat silent in the theater for six hours. It freaks you out to realize that everyone around you has a skeleton inside them. You ''have'' really looked at your hands.
:*Gall-Peters
:**I ''hate'' you.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Maps‏‎]]
[[Category:Dvorak]]
[[Category:Puts on sunglasses]]
[[Category:Puns]]
[[Category:Aviation]]

2929: Good and Bad Ideas

2024-05-07T09:00:30Z

172.70.86.176: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2929
| date = May 6, 2024
| title = Good and Bad Ideas
| image = good_and_bad_ideas_2x.png
| imagesize = 595x522px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = While it seemed like a fun prank at the time, I realize my prank fire extinguishers full of leaded gasoline were a mistake.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is a scatter plot comparing how good an idea sounds to how good the idea actually is. For example, leaded gasoline sounds like a good idea due to the anti-knocking effects, but is actually a bad idea due to lead toxicity. Fake prank fire extinguishers however sound bad and are bad as they can result in a dangerous situation in an emergency. Putting mold on infections sounds like a bad idea, but this could be referring to Penicillin, an antibiotic.

The title text combines leaded gasoline and a fake prank fire extinguisher into something that is worse than either. Not only is the fire extinguisher fake, it also releases flammable material onto the fire, and there is the additional lead toxicity.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Idea !! What it means !! How good it sounds !! How good it actually is !! Explanation
|-
|Leaded Gasoline||Adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline to increase performance||++||---||Lead is toxic. Burning the leaded gasoline in an engine releases the lead in the air. This is bad.
|-
|Bloodletting||Releasing "bad blood" from the veins||---||---||You need your blood.{{Citation needed}} Bloodletting has been performed as a medical procedure for at least 2000 years until it was considered pseudoscience from the 19th century, when the harmful effects became known. The idea was to withdraw blood to balance the body's "humors". Nowadays phlebotomy is only used therapeutically in a small number of cases, such as hemochromatosis (too much iron in the body).
|-
|Asbestos||Mineral which does not burn and is good isolation||+++||---||Asbestos was used extensively. Sadly the microscopic fibers which make up asbestos greatly increase the risk of cancer when inhaled.
|-
|Extension cords with prongs on both ends||allows easy connection between 2 female connectors||0 (neutral)||---||Prongs on both ends would make it easier to plug the extension cord in on either side. But once plugged into an outlet, the other end becomes a serious shock hazard.
|-
|Stair Kayaking||||--||---|| Stair kayaking is a stunt where a person positions a kayak at the top of a flight of stairs and then, using their paddle to push off, rides the kayak down the stairs. This poses significant risks of injury or death, as well as being very bad for the kayak, which is designed to ride on water, not concrete.
|-
|Fake prank fire extinguishers||||---||---|| The idea of placing fake fire extinguishers as a prank, presumably so that a person who thinks they are grabbing a real fire extinguisher will instead find a decoy, sounds very dangerous and potentially life-threatening for many people, and it would, in fact, be highly dangerous. In the United States, (and presumably most countries), this would also be a felony in most, if not all, jurisdictions. An example of a similar situation, although not intended as a prank, can be found here[https://twitter.com/ThatSamWinkler/status/1657154071051239424]
|-
|Always saying what you think||...regardless of the feelings of others or other considerations||++||--||They may reply without concern for ''your'' feelings or other considerations. Openness and honesty are seen as positive character traits in people, however taken to the extreme of ''always'' telling people what you think about them, can lead to awkward or unpleasant situations. Keeping negative thoughts to yourself or telling "white lies" can be considered a better alternative in some situations.
|-
|Replying to spammers||Clicking on the "Reply" button from spam mails and writing (and sending) a reply (or worse, clicking on the links in these mails)||--||--||
|-
|Solar cars||Having solar panels on the car's surface (mostly hood and roof) for power generation||+++||-||Cars require large amounts of energy in short periods of time and portable solar panels do not produce this, nor are they as efficient as fixed installations on the power grid.
|-
|Heelies||{{w|Heelys}} are shoes with a inline skate wheel embedded in the sole, at the heel. ||+||-||Heelys allow the wearer (usually children) to shift between normal walking and rolling like a roller skate. This sounds like fun but has lead to numerous injuries.
|-
|Prequels||A work of fiction (mostly movie) telling the "story before the story" of another work of fiction.||+++||-||More of a good story sounds great on the surface, but the constraints of a prequel's ending needing to create the starting conditions of the original work often precludes organic development and causes contrived plots.
|-
|Transition Lenses||Photochromic lenses in glasses get darker (like sunglasses) in bright light.||+||-||
|-
|Cutting pizza in squares||Cutting (a presumably round) pizza in squares||-||-||Most people cut pizza into wedges and hold it by the crust. Cutting it into squares allows for more pieces to be shared, but pieces near the center will have no crust to hold it by, getting cheese and sauce all over your fingers. There will also be lots of leftover tiny pieces. While hardly a disaster like the other items in its quadrant, square pizza pieces are just not very useful and rather inefficient. Cutting a rectangular pizza into squares might not suffer from the problems above, but, unless the pizza itself is square and cut only inot four squares, some people will end up with a higher crust-to-topping ratio than others.
|-
|{{w|Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)|Project Orion}}||Study by the U.S. government looking into nuclear pulse propulsion for spacecraft.||---||-||Repeated nuclear explosions in order to move sounds bad for both the spacecraft and everything else, especially with a ground launch. But there are ways to address a lot of the concerns, so it isn't as bad as it sounds. Project Orion's theorized specific impulse and thrust would also be far higher than anything chemical rockets can accomplish. The efficiency of Project Orion is extremely low, however.
|-
|Soup||Soup||0 (neutral)||0 (neutral)||Soup is probably one of the oldest foods created by prehistoric cooks. Most people enjoy it, though many soups are considered somewhat lacking as a meal on their own, or bland.
|-
|Combo washer dryers||A device which combines washing machine and laundry dryer into one device||+++||+||Better at space efficiency, but worse at each task than separate devices.
|-
|Cutting sandwiches diagonally||Cutting sandwiches diagonally||+||+||Generally regarded as the structurally superior way to slice a sandwich, providing better support in the hand and fewer all-crust bites. Required in the assembly of a club sandwich, where the diagonal components are stacked again.
|-
|{{w|Diverging diamond interchange|Diverging diamond interchanges}}||Road junction where the two road direction cross over to switch sides (so if you normally drive on the right, now you drive on the left) then switch back to normal after the junction||-||+||
|-
|Toasting sandwiches||Making a sandwich first and then cooking it, as in a {{w|toaster oven|toaster oven}} or frying pan||++||++||The grilled cheese sandwich is a familiar form to most people, and many other sandwiches are improved by toasting as a final step. Others, such as the {{w|western sandwich|Western}} or {{w|club sandwich|club}} are prepared using toast. The {{w|peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich|Elvis}} is a specific case of a sandwich that normally wouldn't be toasted, but is improved by it - peanut butter, bacon, banana, and jelly, with the assembly lightly fried.
|-
|Crumple zones||Designated areas of a car that crumple in case of a crash... ||--||++||...to absorb the energy of the crash to prevent damage to the passengers
|-
|Sliced bread||Bread, sliced by the baker before packaging for sale||+++||++||It's far more convenient for making sandwiches or toast, but unfortunately presliced bread will go stale faster and some applications may be better off thicker or thinner than the slices provided.
|-
|Pizza||Flat, though usually leavened, bread with tomato sauce, cheese, and often vegetables or preserved meats||++||++||Pizza is a widely popular dish throughout much of the world, uncontroversial except {{w|Pineapple|certain toppings.}}
|-
|Eating citrus fruit while at sea||||0 (neutral)||+++||The vitamin C present in citrus fruits prevents one from contracting {{w|Scurvy|scurvy}}.
|-
|Putting mold on infections||Seemingly a reference to ancient practice of pressing moldy bread against infected wounds||---||++||While this sounds like a good way to get a fungal infection, with the correct mold this is a primitive antibiotic, and led to the discovery of penicillin.
|-
|Wheels on luggage||Some luggage bags have small wheels inset on their frame and a carrying handle.||+++||+++||A relatively simple fitting for rigid or semi-rigid luggage that substantially eases its transport through air and seaport terminals.
|-
|Heat pumps||Refrigeration (or air conditioning) technology operated in reverse to heat an area instead.||++||+++||Because refrigeration is a very efficient way to move heat (as long as the cold side's temperature is high enough) this is often far more energetically efficient than directly heating a space. Reversible heat pumps also exist which can take care of both temperature needs in some climates.
|-
|Laser eye surgery||Surgical techniques using lasers for precision cutting in the eyeball.||-||+++||This technology has substantially improved the eyesight of millions of people worldwide by allowing treatment of eye problems otherwise only corrected by lenses, or entirely untreatable. Randall has previously commented on laser eye surgery, amongst other ideas both good and bad, in [[1681: Laser Products]].
|-
|Fecal transplants||Transfer of gut microbiome of healthy person to sterilised gut of ill person.||---||+++||The gut microbiome is a collection of bacteria that lives in our guts. It can influence our health. It is responsible for last stages of digesting our food. It can also produce neurotransmitters that are carried by blood to our brain influencing our behaviour. A healthy microbiome can be destroyed by bad eating habits, unhealthy lifestyle, infections or antibiotics. The important part is a composition of different species of bacteria that compromise the biome. Sometimes it may be necessary to completely sterilise the gut and then take a sample of a healthy biome from another person. A sample is enough as the bacteria will multiply. As long as the patient eats correctly, the microbiome after transplant should develop correctly.

It sounds bad because we tend to think of our feces as something gross, to be discarded. It is called fecal transplant as our feces contain about 50% of gut bacteria, but nowadays the sample usually takes the form of a coated pill that is applied rectally.
|-
|}

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

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]

Talk:2922: Pub Trivia

2024-04-19T14:40:12Z

172.70.86.176:

I expect that the BTS question is a reference to the traditional Korean system of counting a person's age in units of Sal which started at 1 and incremented on the first day of the year. Since this system was abandoned on official documents in 2023, but is still in use in some contexts, the question of whether every member of BTS had a "birthday" on the first day of the year is ambiguous. [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:13, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

question 5, planets exist outside the solar system, adding to the ambiguity. [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:15, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

As for question 9, please see the note about the history of Austrailia's capitals at: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_national_capitals#Oceania]]. and the page regarding countries with multiple capitals [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_multiple_capitals]] [[User:Philhower|Philhower]] ([[User talk:Philhower|talk]]) 14:24, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

About the alt text, London is certainly in Europe. The question itself is malformed because "Europe (or 'the EU')" is not self-consistent: there is a lot of European countries that are not part of the EU. [[User:RedGolpe|RedGolpe]] ([[User talk:RedGolpe|talk]]) 14:32, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benxi Benxi Lake] is actually considered to be the smallest lake in the world. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.135.205|172.70.135.205]]
:{{cn}}[[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.176|172.70.86.176]] 14:40, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

I never realized how challenging it is to edit pages when they've just been posted. Makes me long for something like Google docs.[[Special:Contributions/172.68.3.43|172.68.3.43]] 14:39, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

2921: Eclipse Path Maps

2024-04-18T09:53:02Z

172.70.86.176: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2921
| date = April 18, 2024
| title = Eclipse Path Maps
| image = eclipse_path_maps_2x.png
| imagesize = 562x674px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Okay, this eclipse will only be visible from the Arctic in February 2063, when the sun is below the horizon, BUT if we get lucky and a gigantic chasm opens in the Earth in just the right spot...
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TORNADO CAPITAL OF THE WORLD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
A total {{w|solar eclipse}} occurred {{w|Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024|on April 8, 2024}} in North America, ten days before this comic. This comic comments on the fact that most solar eclipses happen on territories not easily reachable by humans, or do happen near easy to reach places, but with weather conditions that make viewing the eclipse less appealing, like cloudy skies (mentioned previously in [[2915: Eclipse Clouds]] and [[2917: Types of Eclipse Photo]]), fog, or tornadoes (also a [[:Category:Tornadoes|recurring subject]] on xkcd), or experience only a short period of totality.

This map shows only one small location within this particular path of totality which is ideal for seeing an eclipse. However, because this is the only attractive location, almost everyone wanting to view the eclipse (apparently 40,000,000 visitors) is aiming to travel to this area. Packed in to 6 square miles, this would equal 2.57 people per square meter (plus any resident population), which isn't very much space available per person.

The title text mentions the {{w|Solar eclipse of February 28, 2063|solar eclipse of February 2063}}, but this annular eclipse will traverse through the Indian Ocean rather than close to the Arctic. This eclipse would supposedly happen when the {{w|Sun}} would be below the horizon, making it impossible to observe from the surface of {{w|Earth}}. It then jokingly suggests that a giant chasm could open up, making viewing easier.

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

:'''Every eclipse path map'''
:[A grey band representing the totality path of an eclipse travels along the map across several labels. Labels along the path from top to bottom:]
:Zone where totality lasts 1-2 seconds
:[On water] Bay of shifting ice
:[On water] Shipwreck cove
:[On land] Desert so harsh they train Mars astronauts there
:[On water] Sea of rocky crags and maelstorms
:[In square brackets] State department travel advisory
:[On an island] Isle of perpetual fog
:[On small part of a peninsula] Nice, scenic, accessible area (6 square miles, 40,000,000 visitors expected)
:[On land] Tornado capital of the world
:[On land] Area where the eclipse will be low in the sky, behind the tornadoes

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Solar eclipses]]
[[Category:Maps]]
[[Category:Tornadoes]]
[[Category:Weather]]