2965: Chili Tornado Quake

2024-07-30T14:07:53Z

172.70.91.95: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2965
| date = July 29, 2024
| title = Chili Tornado Quake
| image = chili_tornado_quake_2x.png
| imagesize = 302x252px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SCALED GHOST PEPPER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
As with the recent [[2950: Situation]], and occasional other comics, [[Randall]] has contrived an incident that combines multiple scenarios into an improbable whole. [[Cueball]], as a [[:Category:News anchor|news anchor]], is reporting on a tornado that struck a chill pepper processing plant during an earthquake.


In this case, the purpose is to give a value to the scale of the disaster based (in some undefined way) upon the combination of the various scales that might be used to measure the individual elements. Cueball rates the event as 55,000 on the (fictional) Richter-Fujita-Scoville scale. The {{w|Richter scale}} is a historic (but still well known) logarithmic scale for rating the intensity of {{w|earthquakes}} that theoretically ranges from minus infinity to infinity, with practically relevant scores ranging from about 3 to 9.5. The {{w|Fujita scale}} is a scale for rating the intensity of damage caused by {{w|tornadoes}} which ranges from 0 to 5. The {{w|Scoville scale}} is a scale for the spiciness of {{w|chili peppers}} and can go from 0 (not at all spicy) all the way up into the millions.

It would seem fairly likely that the three base numbers are multiplied, as with {{w|Foot-pound (energy)|similar}} compound-unit calculations, to give the single combined measure, although some nominal types are treated as {{w|Erdős–Bacon number|additive}}. Given the image this is not a 5 on the tornado scale. Also since the building is still there it is not a 9 on the Richter scale. So at worst it would be 4x8 for those two. This would then leave the rest for the Scoville scale, which would give around 1700 on that scale as a minimum. The other two numbers could easily be smaller so that the Scoville number would be reaching above 3000.

In the title text it is mentioned that buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts [due] to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating. The {{w|Mohs scale}} is a scale for mineral hardness ranging from 1-10, with lower numbers being softer and higher numbers being harder. Chili peppers are strong in a spicy sense, but very soft on the Mohs scale, so if it was only the chilies that hit other buildings it would only be very very soft material that would take any damage. Of course there would also be building material hitting nearby houses, thus they would do more damage than the chili. A number, where the hardness of the materials hitting nearby buildings was taken into consideration, could have been given, adding a fourth number to consider in the scale, but no such number is provided.

The comic [[1531: The BDLPSWDKS Effect]] also dealt with a hybrid multi-disciplinary amalgum of measurements.

==Transcript==
:[Close-up of Cueball, a news anchor, next to an image with a headline above it to the left of him. The image shows of black tornado descending from sky-cover above. It is striking a building that has been damaged near where the tornado hits. Two large chilies can be seen flying through the air in the foreground, with pieces of the building and more chilies flying off further away. Straight beneath the building and going up in the middle of it there is a crack, that divides into three inside the building. The ground is also higher to the right of the point where the crack enters the building. Cueball is speaking which is shown above the image and him.]
:Headline: Breaking news
:Cueball: A tornado that struck a chili pepper processing plant during an earthquake was rated 55,000 on the Richter-Fujita-Scoville scale.

==Trivia==
*It seems the title text is missing the word "due":
**"Buildings constructed from softer materials were damaged by chili pepper impacts '''due''' to the storm's high Richter-Fujita-Scoville-Mohs hardness rating."

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:News anchor]]
[[Category:Tornadoes]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Earthquakes]]

Talk:2818: Circuit Symbols

2023-08-22T11:27:17Z

172.70.91.95:

The direct link to the comic is getting a 404 error. But it appears at the xkcd.com home page. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 01:31, 22 August 2023 (UTC)
:The link is working now. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:33, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

Randall is symbolizing sheep with a coil because ... wool takes a helical shape. See https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wool#/media/File:Royal_Winter_Fair_Wool.jpg. [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 02:33, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

The title text is probably a reference to the classic novella "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (a common classroom reading in the US). In this novella, a young Puritan woman "sins" by having a child out of wedlock. She is punished by having to wear the letter A (for adultery). [[User:Comsmomf|Comsmomf]] ([[User talk:Comsmomf|talk]]) 02:54, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

Can someone with more wiki-foo than me please put the actual images for the symbols in a new first column? [[User:Blackbearnh|Blackbearnh]] ([[User talk:Blackbearnh|talk]]) 03:01, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

I tried, unsuccessfully, to learn if there were "Scarlet Letters" that represented other sins ['A' is mentioned to be for 'Adultery', Maybe 'O' for Onanism?] [[User:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For]] ([[User talk:These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For|talk]]) 03:41, 22 August 2023 (UTC)
:From what I understand, ‘BJ’ had its fair share of supporters. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.247|172.70.210.247]] 04:47, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

What exactly does "the opposite of capacitors" mean in this context? I'm not that familiar with EE, but from my limited understanding of inductors this is an incorrect and confusing statement. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.126.79|172.70.126.79]] 08:07, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

:They are the conjugate complex (so the sentence is kind of half-true), if you consider complex impedances. Sebastian --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.169|172.68.110.169]] 08:56, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

:Behaviorally the description makes sense, capacitors behave the same way regarding voltage vs. current as inductors behave regarding current vs. voltage and vice versa. Capacitors can "instantaneously" allow a spike in the current flowing through the circuit path that they are placed in, while the voltage across a capacitor can't change instantaneously and requires time to change incrementally (with a corresponding decline over time in the current flowing). Inductors "instantaneously" allow the voltage across their terminals to spike, but the current flowing through it can't change instantaneously and requires time to change incrementally (with a corresponding decline in the voltage across the inductor). Capacitors can act as a sort of "shock absorber" (no pun intended) or low-pass frequency filter for voltages, as inductors can for current. So they are very much considered complementary and the "essentially the opposite of capacitors" comment does pretty much make sense to EEs. But yes, it's not a particularly illuminating description without that background, and the description isn't really valid regarding their physical makeup or what makes them tick, just their role in a circuit. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.146.213|172.71.146.213]] 09:32, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

The "overpass" is troubling me, as a map fan. Dependant upon the conventions of any given map illustrator this could easily be more an ''underpass'' (main road being the || track, lesser track being the — that sneaks beneath it) or a 'green bridge' (road is the — and the bridge 'symbol' is the || with no actual route using the space between its edges) or a minor road intersection of an uncrossable dual carriageway (each || is a directional way, separated by central reservation, and a historic road/lane is given T-junction access to/from the adjacent direction of travel, but no local flyover to access the opposite continuation/direction, probably have to use other flyovers/turning points above and below this snapshot). Or it's just a regular major/minor crossroads (track-level horizontal/E-W, more main road vertically/N-S) and is entirely at-grade so not involving a bridge at all. But all very much will repy upon the publisher's/renderer's choice of map-symbolism. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.95|172.70.91.95]] 11:27, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

2965: Chili Tornado Quake

Talk:2818: Circuit Symbols