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2861: X Value

2023-11-29T21:18:39Z

172.70.91.8: aren't we supposed to explain the joke?

{{comic
| number = 2861
| date = November 29, 2023
| title = X Value
| image = x_value_2x.png
| imagesize = 291x192px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = The value of n is still unknown, but new results constrain it to fall between 8 and 10^500, ruling out popular 'n=1' and 'n=2' theories.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by MATHEMATICIANS TRYING TO FIND THE VALUE OF Y - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
In algebra, a {{w|Variable (mathematics)|variable}} is any symbol used to represent a number that has not been defined. The most familiar algebraic variable is ''x'' (the unknown input), with ''y'' often being the yet to be determined output (its value being dependant upon that of the ''x''), often plotted onto a graph as a line. Or, with ''z'', a 3D surface. According to the comic, the value of ''x'' has finally been found, being 4.1083. The joke is that a general-purpose variable, which may take different values in different scenarios, turns out to have a specific value, as though it were a constant.

The specific number 4.1083 does not have any notable significance or special role in the contexts of physics, chemistry, finance, astronomy or cryptography.

4.1083 (or at least 4.108) has been referenced previously in comic [[899]].

The title text declares the value of ''n'' is unknown. ''n'' is often used as an unknown/undetermined ''integer'' value, such as how many items the equation might apply for, either as a number yet to be provided (as input) or one yet to be discovered (as output). For example, it might be used in {{w|Sampling (statistics)|statistics}} to specify the length of a list. For example, a list where ''n = 50'' would mean the list contains 50 data points, for which that number of iterations or a larger number of cross-comparisons would be expected.

According to the title text, however, the value ''has'' been narrowed down to somewhere between 8 and 10^500, or one hundred quinsexagintacentillion. Allegedly, therefore, it cannot be the (usually) simplest value of '1', or the simplest multiple of '2'. It also means that the narrowing-down isn't particular narrow, although it is perhaps quite specific compared to the 'pre-narrowing' possibilities of being absolutely any finite value at all.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:[A math formula is circled.]
:<big><big>x = 4.1083</big></big>

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Big math news: They finally figured out the value of x.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Math]]

Talk:2821: Path Minimization

2023-08-29T12:45:34Z

172.70.91.8:

Judging from the angle of the arms, I do not believe that the swimmer is in distress. In fact I think the swimmer is just a future projection of Cueball, not a separate person.

:I agree that the swimmer does not appear to be in distress, although the title text suggests that it is probably a separate person.
:
:My personal interpretation is that the situation is "meeting a friend at the beach to get ice cream". Options are either a) meet the friend first and then swim back to get ice cream or b) get ice cream first and take it out to eat together in the water. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.54|172.70.86.54]] 04:02, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:: Or the more sensible walk to the water's edge and wait for your friend to swim in to meet you... [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.29|172.70.85.29]] 08:43, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:I agree as well, I changed it to "possibly in distress". [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:43, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
::I changed it further. Still admits the possibility, but less possibly than "possibly" hints at. (It is, nonetheless, a (mostly!) typical "you ''need'' to get here, minimising <some form of time/distance/energy/endurance resource>, what is the optimal strategy" tbing that lifesaving courses might include to train you in such considerations. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.82|172.71.242.82]] 09:01, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Technically, the path that minimizes swimming passed a nearby boat rental stand. (by the way, I didn't write the unsigned paragraph above this one) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.247.40|172.69.247.40]] 03:05, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

When I first saw the comic, I thought cueball was suspended on a tether in the air above the water, and the ice cream stand was floating. I didn't realize it was a beach until I read this explanation. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 04:41, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

The ice cream path reminds me of the [[2407|bread-first search]] (similar punchline). [[Special:Contributions/172.71.182.158|172.71.182.158]] 06:55, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Noting, in passing, that an almost "flosbury flop"-like path could have been shown, too. A gentle curve, bending to hit the shore somewhere between shortest-time and shortest-swim, that would allow maximum run-up to dive ''into'' the water at the right angle to then power straight towards the target with the original running impetus turned straight into initial swimming speed, with no sharp turns involved. (Also, an 'Aquaman' line, perhaps exactly complimentary to the land-favouring 'bent-leg' routes, minimising/reducing land in favour of water.) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.242.82|172.71.242.82]]

This was one of my first edits in this wiki, so I hope I didn't do anything wrong. I think this comic clearly references Feynman's Lifeguard problem (there is an almost identical diagram in his QED book) and the Ice-cream vendor problem. I wrote a couple of paragraphs explaining this, but they were promptly deleted by the next editor. Did I do something wrong? I think the explanation is incomplete without those references. [[User:Prallax|Prallax]] ([[User talk:Prallax|talk]]) 10:08, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
: Seeing the history, this is probably just an edit conflict, you should insert your contribution again. [[User:Cochonou|Cochonou]] ([[User talk:Cochonou|talk]]) 11:54, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:: It looks like it was my edit that 'overwrit' Prallax's. Though I got no "edit conflict" notification (or I'd have at least tried to reintegrate my failed changes into the revised 'current prior' version, or at least revisit the diffs to reinstate the best of what I'd caused to vanish/undo). Thinking back, it ''might'' have been due to a server time-out which meant I resubmitted, fooling the back end about what version I was (thinking I was) actually adding to/revising... I'm pretty sure it occasionally does that, and probably more than I ever know about, if I don't have reason to check the page histories in detail...
:: Anyway, recovered the paragraphs and re-added them to the end (maybe should have been inserted before the traditionally final title-text-paragraph?) on the original editor's behalf, as they looked fairly good and I didn't see anything in them that I might want to change (not even markup).
:: So both apologies and congratulations to their author! They might later get tweaked/redone, b6 others, but as far as ('one-of-my-')first-time edits go I'd have personally been proud to have done as well, whatever my first (probably disasterous) edits might actually have been, oh so many years ago and lost in the mists of anonymous-IPdom... Keep it up, and welcome to the rabble! ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.8|172.70.91.8]] 12:45, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Reminds me of https://xkcd.com/85/ [[User:Betamaj|Betamaj]] ([[User talk:Betamaj|talk]]) 12:06, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

1123: The Universal Label

2023-05-31T07:58:52Z

172.70.91.8: /* Explanation */ Minor grammar tweak

{{comic
| number = 1123
| date = October 19, 2012
| title = The Universal Label
| image = the universal label.png
| titletext = Works for any grocery or non-grocery. Even thyme is just H and time.
}}

==Explanation==
All matter in the universe (heavier than {{w|Isotopes_of_lithium#Lithium-7|lithium-7}}) was created through {{w|nuclear fusion}} of {{w|hydrogen}} atoms inside {{w|stars}} over the 13.8 billion years that have gone by since the {{w|Big Bang}}. A detailed explanation (for the lay person) of this process is available in this article about [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/3280.html Making Atoms].

From this article (and from the wiki article on Big Bang) it is clear that our universe began not only with hydrogen. Although the majority of atoms produced by the Big Bang were hydrogen, lots of {{w|helium}} and traces of {{w|lithium}} were also produced. Actually {{w|Big Bang#Abundance of primordial elements|about 25%}} of the non-dark mass in the universe comes from helium created shortly after the Big Bang. (See also the later comic [[2723: Outdated Periodic Table]] about which atoms were around after the Big Bang).

In stars, however, helium is also created directly from hydrogen atoms. So it would have been enough to just start out with hydrogen in the early universe. Given enough time, all the other elements would have been created inside these originally hydrogen-only stars. To make elements heavier than helium some of the elements created by hydrogen, will have to fuse subsequentially. And in order to make elements heavier than iron, a {{w|supernova}} explosion is needed. But in either case it is still products of hydrogen that fuse together.

In many countries, food products must have their ingredients displayed somewhere on their packaging. Because all the ingredients in any food are either hydrogen or heavier atoms created through stellar nuclear fusion from hydrogen over time, the ingredients of any items can technically be described fully as only being made from hydrogen and time. Thus this label would be the universal label. A pun on two of the meanings of the word [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/universal universal]. Any food is of course ''universal'' as in a part of the universe. But the label can also be a ''universal'' label as in a common label for all food or any other product in the universe, as well as the universe itself for that {{w|matter}}.

The title text first makes it clear that this works both for any {{w|grocery}} as well as any non-grocery, which as described above simply means anything else. It then goes on to making a pun on the words {{w|thyme}} (a herb) and {{w|time}}, as the two words are {{w|homophones}}. "H" is the chemical symbol for hydrogen thus completing the pun by noticing that the word "thyme" can be made by adding the letter "h" to "tyme" which would be a homophone even closer to the word time.

[[Randall]] previously made a joke on the fact that thyme and time are homophones in [[282: Organic Fuel]].

Later he made a reference to primordial hydrogen in the title text of [[2778: Cuisine]].

==Transcript==
:'''Ingredients:'''
:Hydrogen, Time

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Physics]]
[[Category:Cosmology]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Time]]