explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2844: Black Holes vs Regular Holes

2023-10-20T18:57:18Z

172.70.90.132:

FIRST! hehehe [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]] ([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk]]) 17:05, 20 October 2023 (UTC)
 
Alright, working on transcript now. [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]] ([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk]]) 17:08, 20 October 2023 (UTC)
: Done! [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]] ([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk]]) 17:16, 20 October 2023 (UTC)
:: Transcripts should really not be markup-tables, ideally. I know some (that describe tables) are, but you really need to set it all out in 'Transcript markup', such as:
:: [A table with three columns, the column headers are:] ... ... ...
:: [Row:] ...thing which the row says... [Black hole:] ...foo... [Normal hole:] ...bar...
:: ...etc
:: You need to think about how a screen-reader might interact with this text. Not all can 'deconstruct' an HTML table and make as much sense as a good description.
:: Although kudos for you for typing the text in, which the rest of the description should at least pad out fairly easily. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.131|172.69.79.131]] 18:46, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

Also got some of the explanation in, but i don't know too much. if anyone can improve on it please go ahead [[User:SomeoneIGuess|someone, i guess]] ([[User talk:SomeoneIGuess|talk]]) 17:33, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

[[User:DougM|DougM]] ([[User talk:DougM|talk]]) 18:05, 20 October 2023 (UTC) I think I disagree with his assessment that regular holes are not a result of the big bang. Convince me regular holes would exist without it?

The LHC caused a regular hole by being built deep in the ground. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.200.142|172.70.200.142]] 18:08, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

"Regular" holes? Like square? Or perhaps strictly periodic in nature? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.79.131|172.69.79.131]] 18:36, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

Everyone knows that SERN used the LHC to create Kerr black holes to make jelly. Randall must be an agent of the Organization if he's trying to hide it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.132|172.70.90.132]] 18:57, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

2684: Road Space Comparison

2023-10-08T16:05:27Z

172.70.90.132: /* Explanation */ My error! And further rephrasing/punctuating, to avoid roll-on (and in-and-out) sentences/phrases.

{{comic
| number = 2684
| date = October 12, 2022
| title = Road Space Comparison
| image = road_space_comparison_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1157px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I wonder how hard it would be to ride an electric scooter in a hamster ball.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic is a parody of a common comparison done in arguments for public transport and walkable cities - the amount of usable space taken up by cars and car-centric infrastructure that could be eliminated for other useful public amenities. The first of these may be from 1965[https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/posters/item/1983-4-7561].

The first 4 images are common, real-life comparisons involving people walking, people on bicycles, public transport, and cars, which distinctly show how cars take up significantly more space for the same number of people than the other methods of transport. However, from this point the comic becomes more and more absurd in its comparisons.

* The 5th image shows 50 people on what is reported to be a tandem bicycle, although it seems more likely to actually be a string of {{w|trailer bike}}s, due to it not being rigid and the separation from one person to the next is larger than is typical for tandem bicycles. This would obviously be impractical in a city due to the tandem's sheer length and it would not be able to work with fewer than 50 people due to its sheer mass. The [https://www.active.com/articles/bicycle-built-for-52-pedals-into-guinness-book longest compound] [https://www.deseret.com/2000/7/31/19521141/family-s-bike-goes-to-great-lengths cycle] holds 52 people, while an actual tandem bicycle exists that has at least [https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/346988346267601955/ 35 seats].

* The 6th one involves 20 people driving 40 cars, with each person driving 2 cars at a time by straddling them in the middle. Besides being unwieldy and impractical, it would also be extremely dangerous as the cars could go out of control at any time. Perhaps the cars would be a paired mix of left-hand-drive and right-hand-drive models, although with enough push-rods/levers (to also reach the traditional foot controls, and also gear sticks unless ''fully'' automatic) this might not be as important. However, even if the cars were perfectly safe to drive, it would be unsafe to drive them on most roads; roads with only one lane per direction are common, everywhere from city streets to exit ramps, and attempts to drive a pair of cars down such a road side by side are unlikely to end well. (Of course, worse than any of these petty safety concerns is the fact that each person takes up twice as much road space, making most infrastructure a bit less efficient. Of all the examples, this is the most wasteful of space, with the entire road being taken up by only 20 people.)

* The 7th one has 30 cars riding on 6 buses by stacking them on top of each other. Assuming the same people-per-car/bus from the earlier examples, this arrangement would have about 345 people riding on the same road! (Unless, of course, the buses are carrying 30 cars ''instead of'' their normal passengers.) In addition, people getting out of the cars when they reach their destination would be a problem for most cars in this arrangement due to them being stacked under other cars or surrounded by them. And as in the previous example, it would be impossible to safely drive anywhere without two clear lanes...and the body count would be considerably higher.

* The 8th panel has 50 people in hamster balls. Randall has shown his interest in human sized [[:Category:Hamster Ball|hamster ball]] transportation before, and indeed, for some people, this might be an enjoyable way to traverse a road, provided no other hamster balls try to drive into you and knock you off the road, and other traffic that could pose a greater hazard has been eliminated.
** The [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/0/0f/20221222053911%21road_space_comparison_2x.png original image] showed 39 hamster balls, implying that roughly one in four had a passenger; under these constraints, they appear to be slightly more efficient than cars. Another explanation for 39 balls was that the full number of hamster balls was more than were able to be shown on the road diagram. This latter was supported by the fact that only one "person dot" is shown in each of the hamster balls. However, since the diagram is supposed to show visibly what it looks like to have that many vehicles/people on the road at the same time, missing hamster balls negates the purpose of such a diagram. The later update belied the possibility of it being a purely illustrative problem.

* The 9th panel has 40 tiny cars pulling a big one. Such feats of strengths are a common sight while setting world records, so maybe this is a world record attempt by the cars in question. It is unknown how many people fit in the big car; judging by its size, it likely fits more than a single bus and less than three. It is also unclear whether the tiny cars can fit a human driver, or if they would need to be driven remotely.

* The 10th panel is a 50 person variation on the classic {{w|wolf, goat and cabbage problem}} (which has been referenced before in [[589: Designated Drivers]], [[1134: Logic Boat]], and [[2348: Boat Puzzle]]) except this one involves 30 goats, 20 cabbages and 10 wolves trying to cross a section of road that is underwater, using a single boat. The fact that there is a conveniently placed dock at the edge of the water suggests that this is a ford with provision for those crossing by foot, or at least that the road gets flooded often enough to warrant a permanent dock to be installed. It is not known how many people (or cabbages for that matter) the boat fits, but since humans significantly outnumber the goats, cabbages and wolves, it seems like a much simpler problem, though not necessarily without difficulty.

The initial bicycles and singular bus are actually (mostly) using the left-hand lane of the three shown, for whatever reason. This would not be unusual on British highways or {{w|Left- and right-hand traffic#Worldwide distribution by country|other countries}} using their system, whether the lanes seen are just one of the directional carriageways of a multi-lane split highway or the centre-lane is a gantry-signed {{w|Reversible lane|'tidal lane'}} of a fully two-way street. Yet people who have to walk on a road (due to no footway) are advised to walk facing oncoming traffic (the right-hand side, in the same jurisdiction) and not bunched up. It would be interesting to know why Randall, much more familiar with US road conventions, would have offset these various road-users the way he did (rather than hogging the central lane, or across the ''entire'' highway width as he did with the other diagrams in the series).

The title text proposes a problem related to another alternative form of transport — the electric scooter. Randall wonders how well an electric scooter would function when run inside the hamster ball. While this could function like a spherical {{w|monowheel}}, it might also be very dangerous.

==Transcript==
:[Overhead views of ten segments of highway in two rows with a caption above. Each road segment has a caption and a different scenario.]
:Road Space Comparison

:[50 people in the bottom left of the highway, all fitting into a single lane and taking up about a fourth of the length of the road.]
:50 people walking

:[50 bike riders in the bottom left of the highway, extending about halfway up the road and spilling over slightly into the second-to-leftmost lane]
:50 people riding bikes

:[A single bus, fitting into roughly the same space as the 50 people from the first scenario]
:50 people riding a bus

:[33 cars, taking up the entire length of all three lanes]
:50 people in 33 cars

:[One long string of connected bike riders, curving slightly and extending down the entire length of the middle lane]
:50 people on one tandem bicycle

:[40 cars in pairs, each pair with a single person straddling the windows between them. They take up the entire highway segment and each pair extends partway from the outer lanes into the middle]
:20 people driving 40 cars

:[Six buses on the lines between lanes taking up the majority of the highway, 30 cars arranged in stacks across the top]
:30 cars riding on 6 buses

:[39 evenly-spaced hamster balls with a person inside each, taking up the majority of the highway except a space at the top]
:50 people in human-sized hamster balls

:[An oversized car taking up all three lanes at the bottom of the highway, with a pair of ropes and a beam attached to the front bumper. The beam is attached to 40 miniature cars in front arranged into four lines]
:One giant car pulled by 40 tiny ones

:[The road is bisected by a large river taking up about half of its original area, with a dock and rowboat attached to the lower shore. 50 people, 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves are in groups on the same side]
:50 people with 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Hamster Ball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Logic]]

2684: Road Space Comparison

2023-10-08T16:01:50Z

172.70.90.132: Undo revision 325181 by 162.158.146.23 (talk) Modified undo, to explain the change in circumstance.

{{comic
| number = 2684
| date = October 12, 2022
| title = Road Space Comparison
| image = road_space_comparison_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x1157px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = I wonder how hard it would be to ride an electric scooter in a hamster ball.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic is a parody of a common comparison done in arguments for public transport and walkable cities - the amount of usable space taken up by cars and car-centric infrastructure that could be eliminated for other useful public amenities. The first of these may be from 1965[https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/posters/item/1983-4-7561].

The first 4 images are common, real-life comparisons involving people walking, people on bicycles, public transport, and cars, which distinctly show how cars take up significantly more space for the same number of people than the other methods of transport. However, from this point the comic becomes more and more absurd in its comparisons.

* The 5th image shows 50 people on what is reported to be a tandem bicycle, although it seems more likely to actually be a string of {{w|trailer bike}}s, due to it not being rigid and the separation from one person to the next is larger than is typical for tandem bicycles. This would obviously be impractical in a city due to the tandem's sheer length and it would not be able to work with fewer than 50 people due to its sheer mass. The [https://www.active.com/articles/bicycle-built-for-52-pedals-into-guinness-book longest compound] [https://www.deseret.com/2000/7/31/19521141/family-s-bike-goes-to-great-lengths cycle] holds 52 people, while an actual tandem bicycle exists that has at least [https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/346988346267601955/ 35 seats].

* The 6th one involves 20 people driving 40 cars, with each person driving 2 cars at a time by straddling them in the middle. Besides being unwieldy and impractical, it would also be extremely dangerous as the cars could go out of control at any time. Perhaps the cars would be a paired mix of left-hand-drive and right-hand-drive models, although with enough push-rods/levers (to also reach the traditional foot controls, and also gear sticks unless ''fully'' automatic) this might not be as important. However, even if the cars were perfectly safe to drive, it would be unsafe to drive them on most roads; roads with only one lane per direction are common, everywhere from city streets to exit ramps, and attempts to drive a pair of cars down such a road side by side are unlikely to end well. (Of course, worse than any of these petty safety concerns is the fact that each person takes up twice as much road space, making most infrastructure a bit less efficient. Of all the examples, this is the most wasteful of space, with the entire road being taken up by only 20 people.)

* The 7th one has 30 cars riding on 6 buses by stacking them on top of each other. Assuming the same people-per-car/bus from the earlier examples, this arrangement would have about 345 people riding on the same road! (Unless, of course, the buses are carrying 30 cars ''instead of'' their normal passengers.) In addition, people getting out of the cars when they reach their destination would be a problem for most cars in this arrangement due to them being stacked under other cars or surrounded by them. And as in the previous example, it would be impossible to safely drive anywhere without two clear lanes...and the body count would be considerably higher.

* The 8th panel has 50 people in hamster balls. Randall has shown his interest in human sized [[:Category:Hamster Ball|hamster ball]] transportation before, and indeed, for some people, this might be an enjoyable way to traverse a road, provided no other hamster balls try to drive into you and knock you off the road, and other traffic that could pose a greater hazard has been eliminated.
** The [[https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/0/0f/20221222053911%21road_space_comparison_2x.png original image]] showed 39 hamster balls, implying that roughly one in four had a passenger; under these constraints, they appear to be slightly more efficient than cars. Another explanation for 39 balls was that there are more hamster balls than are able to be shown on the road diagram; this was supported by the fact that only one "person dot" is shown in each of the hamster balls, however since the diagram is supposed to show visibly what it looks like to have that many vehicles/people on the road at the same time, missing hamster balls negates the purpose of such a diagram, and the later update belied the possibility of it being a purely illustrative problem.

* The 9th panel has 40 tiny cars pulling a big one. Such feats of strengths are a common sight while setting world records, so maybe this is a world record attempt by the cars in question. It is unknown how many people fit in the big car; judging by its size, it likely fits more than a single bus and less than three. It is also unclear whether the tiny cars can fit a human driver, or if they would need to be driven remotely.

* The 10th panel is a 50 person variation on the classic {{w|wolf, goat and cabbage problem}} (which has been referenced before in [[589: Designated Drivers]], [[1134: Logic Boat]], and [[2348: Boat Puzzle]]) except this one involves 30 goats, 20 cabbages and 10 wolves trying to cross a section of road that is underwater, using a single boat. The fact that there is a conveniently placed dock at the edge of the water suggests that this is a ford with provision for those crossing by foot, or at least that the road gets flooded often enough to warrant a permanent dock to be installed. It is not known how many people (or cabbages for that matter) the boat fits, but since humans significantly outnumber the goats, cabbages and wolves, it seems like a much simpler problem, though not necessarily without difficulty.

The initial bicycles and singular bus are actually (mostly) using the left-hand lane of the three shown, for whatever reason. This would not be unusual on British highways or {{w|Left- and right-hand traffic#Worldwide distribution by country|other countries}} using their system, whether the lanes seen are just one of the directional carriageways of a multi-lane split highway or the centre-lane is a gantry-signed {{w|Reversible lane|'tidal lane'}} of a fully two-way street. Yet people who have to walk on a road (due to no footway) are advised to walk facing oncoming traffic (the right-hand side, in the same jurisdiction) and not bunched up. It would be interesting to know why Randall, much more familiar with US road conventions, would have offset these various road-users the way he did (rather than hogging the central lane, or across the ''entire'' highway width as he did with the other diagrams in the series).

The title text proposes a problem related to another alternative form of transport — the electric scooter. Randall wonders how well an electric scooter would function when run inside the hamster ball. While this could function like a spherical {{w|monowheel}}, it might also be very dangerous.

==Transcript==
:[Overhead views of ten segments of highway in two rows with a caption above. Each road segment has a caption and a different scenario.]
:Road Space Comparison

:[50 people in the bottom left of the highway, all fitting into a single lane and taking up about a fourth of the length of the road.]
:50 people walking

:[50 bike riders in the bottom left of the highway, extending about halfway up the road and spilling over slightly into the second-to-leftmost lane]
:50 people riding bikes

:[A single bus, fitting into roughly the same space as the 50 people from the first scenario]
:50 people riding a bus

:[33 cars, taking up the entire length of all three lanes]
:50 people in 33 cars

:[One long string of connected bike riders, curving slightly and extending down the entire length of the middle lane]
:50 people on one tandem bicycle

:[40 cars in pairs, each pair with a single person straddling the windows between them. They take up the entire highway segment and each pair extends partway from the outer lanes into the middle]
:20 people driving 40 cars

:[Six buses on the lines between lanes taking up the majority of the highway, 30 cars arranged in stacks across the top]
:30 cars riding on 6 buses

:[39 evenly-spaced hamster balls with a person inside each, taking up the majority of the highway except a space at the top]
:50 people in human-sized hamster balls

:[An oversized car taking up all three lanes at the bottom of the highway, with a pair of ropes and a beam attached to the front bumper. The beam is attached to 40 miniature cars in front arranged into four lines]
:One giant car pulled by 40 tiny ones

:[The road is bisected by a large river taking up about half of its original area, with a dock and rowboat attached to the lower shore. 50 people, 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves are in groups on the same side]
:50 people with 30 goats, 20 cabbages, and 10 wolves.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Hamster Ball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Logic]]

Talk:2834: Book Podcasts

2023-09-28T17:01:06Z

172.70.90.132:

This one is the most get-out-of-my-mind I have ever experienced with xkcd. And I had quite a few of these :-)
I recently had this very same thought, and eventually I managed to find a way to get audiobooks and podcasts just mixed up in the very same app and very same environment. And it's been an absolute joy switching around between them. Drastically increased my book-reading.
I have been telling everyone who wants to hear about it. 
Anyone curious to do the same I greatly recommend using PodcastAddict and its integrated "virtual podcasts" feature.
That one allows you to create a "podcast" from a selected folder with audiofiles. 
Combine this with Audiobookstore.com or any other place where you can actually download books you purchase, and you can have the same set-up.
See image for result: https://imgur.com/a/Jp0vgY3 
Not affiliated with any of the services mentioned. Just a big fan of Podcast Addict and Xavier's work :-) [[User:Flekkie|Flekkie]] ([[User talk:Flekkie|talk]]) 22:28, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

You know, someone should distribute transcripts of these podcasts, so you can read them at your own time... [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.81|108.162.221.81]] 10:58, 28 September 2023 (UTC)
:Distribute? Sounds very labour-intensive, compared to downloading. Get a building, let people come into the building and take whatever bundles of podcast printouts they want, from what you have. Either buy them outright (to cover costs) or just borrow them, no more tgan a few at a time, and bring them back for someone else to borrow later. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.22|172.70.85.22]] 12:06, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

This might be a reference to Re:Dracula, an actual podcast that is the book dracula. They have different voice actors for all of the characters, and they release each part exactly 130 years after it was set (Mina Murray's journal entry from September 28th 1893 would be released today).

The difference between podcasts and audiobooks is like a TV series versus a movie. Podcasts are one installment at a time (often once a week), you download an entire audiobook and listen to it at your own rate. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:23, 28 September 2023 (UTC)
: {{w|Binge-watching}} is a thing. (As is the more traditional splitting of a (pre-audio) book into a string of {{w|Serial (literature)|installments}}.) The lines are very blurred. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.132|172.70.90.132]] 17:01, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

2779: Exoplanet High-5

2023-05-23T11:41:22Z

172.70.90.132: /* Explanation */ Less awkward

{{comic
| number = 2779
| date = May 22, 2023
| title = Exoplanet High-5
| image = exoplanet_high_5_2x.png
| imagesize = 515x582px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Tau Ceti is farther away, so it took me 36 years to start the war over updog.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT, 21 YEARS AGO - More on the Updog joke for people not familiar with it. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

''Up high, down low, too slow'' is a {{w|High five#Too_slow|prank variant of a High five}}. In the comic, Earth has established communications with aliens living on Proxima Centauri b, the nearest exoplanet to Earth according to current knowledge, and [[Randall]] has taught them about a High five.

Instead of physically shaking hands, the High five is executed by transmitting messages, as in a {{w|Handshake (computing)}}. The diagram in the comic is thus similar to a {{w|sequence diagram}}, one usually employed for describing network communication in computing. As the messages travel at the speed of light and Proxima Centauri b is over 4 light years away, the times in the diagram are measured in (Earth-)years. This is a very slow method of communication – a perfect setup for a "too slow" prank. We can also see that they are taking around 1/50th of an year (approximately an Earth-week) to cue up their considered response, yet clearly Cueball seems quite ready to respond in about half that time (though any quicker would get lost, and appear simultaneous, at that precision of decimal places).

Having found this way of exchanging a high five with aliens, Randall successfully pranks the aliens by sending the "too slow" message before their "Low-5" message ''can'' even arrive on Earth, and over an Earth-month until it actually does. This is similar to how in the original prank the prankster anticipates the provoked reaction and pulls their hand away after the victim started to move but before the "Low-Five" can taken place.

The aliens do not take kindly to being pranked and start an interstellar war, intending to invade Earth. It is not known at which speed the Centaurians' invasion fleet travels and, therefore, when it will reach Earth.

The title text refers to another prank, in which the prankster gets the victim to ask "What's updog?" (which sounds like "What's up, dawg?"). Tau Ceti is a star almost 12 light years away. The exchange might have gone like this:
* t=0y: ''Randall:'' Hey, do you think it smells like updog in here?
* t=12y: ''Aliens:'' What's updog?
* t=24y: ''Randall:'' Nothin', what's up with you?
* t=36y: ''Message received, Aliens start war''

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

:Earth:
* t=0.0y - "Up high" message sent
:Proxima Centauri B:
* t=4.25y - Message received - discussion -
* t=4.27y - High-5 reply sent
:Earth:
* t=8.52y - Reply received
* t=8.53y - "Down low" message sent
:Proxima Centauri B:
* t=12.77y - Message received - discussion -
* t=12.79y - Low-5 reply sent
:Earth:
* t=16.94y - "Too slow" message sent
* t=17.03y - Reply received
:Proxima Centauri B:
* t=21.19y - Message received
* t=21.26y - Invasion fleet launched

:[Caption below the panel:]
:21 years and 3 months after I taught the aliens about high-5s, the war began.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Aliens]]